Discussion Board Post Response - Essay Example

Discussion Response Discussion response Response to Catherine Schneider In your discussion, you imply that benchmarking acts as a reference for driving improvements geared towards the highest levels of efficiency and fiscal performance. I concur with this statement. Benchmarking helps an organization to compare its strategies with those of top performing organizations (Baker and Baker, 2014). In doing so, best strategies can be replicated in a bid to drive performance to high levels. Conversely, benchmarking can also help an organization identify implemented strategies contributing to low standards and hence drop them (Kay, 2007).

For instance, you have posited that if your organization wants to improve a specific indicator, then it may look at a particular organization that is experiencing significant success with that indicator over time. In my organization, benchmarking is used to help improve competitiveness through replicating best practices adopted from other top performing organizations. Response to Aimee Bentley Your discussion gives more insight on how benchmarking can be conducted using national guidelines as a reference or source.

For instance, there are credible national guidelines for all care processes and these are used in the accreditation process. For an institution to be accredited, all the requirements necessitated by the accreditation bodies must be achieved (Kay, 2007). Using the national guidelines as a benchmark can ensure provision of highest level of standards as there is no need to worry of risks since national standards are a credible source. Processes that fail to meet the required standards can also be identified through data analysis and hence strategies for improvements formulated and implemented (Kay, 2007).

There is however some issues that need to be addressed in your discussion. For instance, your discussion has not explicated the potential risks of using non-credible sources as the basis for benchmarking. Since you work for the Veteran Administration, it would be interesting to find out how benchmarking using non-credible sources as the basis would impact your organization. ReferencesKay, J. F. (2007). Health Care Benchmarking. Medical Bulletin, 12(2), 22-27. Baker, J., & Baker, R. W. (2014).

Health care finance: Basic tools for nonfinancial managers (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.