Benchmarking in health-system pharmacy: Current research and practical applications

The application of benchmarking techniques to hospital pharmacy practice is discussed. Benchmarking is a process designed to discover best practices through a com parison of various competing methods aimed at achieving a particular goal. Benchmarking antimicrobial drug utilization and rates of bacterial resistan ce through comparison with a multitude of similar hospitals can be used by an institution both to identify potential problem areas in its pharmacy pra ctice and to aid in establishing appropriate and attainable goals. The effe ctiveness of various activities targeted at reducing appropriate drug use c an also be benchmarked. In 1993, the Benchmarking Program was established a t Millard Fillmore Hospital. This program consists of a network of hospital pharmacists who supply data on antimicrobial use, antimicrobial management activities, and rates of antimicrobial resistance. The program was designe d both to serve hospital pharmacies in optimizing antimicrobial management and to create a national database for evaluating relationships among antimi crobial use, management, and resistance. Hospitals participating in the Ben chmarking Program receive an annual report that allows them to compare them selves with peer groups and with best-performing "benchmark hospitals." All data from U.S. hospitals contained in the Benchmarking Program database ar e pooled and analyzed to identify meaningful trends. However, information g ained from the institutionwide data must be supplemented by studies at the patient level. Benchmarking antimicrobial drug use in an institutional setting can identif y successes as well as potential problem areas in pharmacy practice and aid in establishing appropriate and attainable goals.