Question

What are some risks of benchmarking in the health field

Answer 1

Despite from all the benefits benchmarking has various risk associated with it.
Following are the risk associated with benchmarking:
Time constraints, competitive barriers, cost, lack of both management commitment and professional human resources, resistance to change, poor planning and short term expectations are regarded as the main problems affecting successful benchmarking research. A poorly executed benchmarking exercise will result in a waste of financial and human resources, as well as time. Ineffectively executed benchmarking projects may have tarnished an organisation's image.
Moreover, there is no single 'best practice' because it varies from one person to another and every organisation differs in terms of mission, culture, environment and technological tools available. Thus, there are risks involved in benchmarking others and in adopting new standards into one's own organisation.
The 'best practice' should be perceived or accepted to be among those practices producing superior outcomes and being judged as good examples within the area.
Benchmarking findings may remove the heterogeneity of an industry since standards will themselves become globally standardised and attempts to produce differentiation may fail. Overall, benchmarking first requires senior management commitment, particularly to supporting actions arising from the exploration. Second, it requires staff to be trained and guided in the process to ensure that maximum benefit is obtained. Finally, it requires allocation of part of the relevant employees time to enable it to be carried out.