[afro-nets] Benchmarking - A Policy Analysis

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

Benchmarking - A Policy Analysis
--------------------------------

Suzanne Wait, Judge Institute of Management
University of Cambridge

Foreword by John Wyn Owen CB, Secretary, Nuffield Trust
The Nuffield Trust, 2004

Available online as PDf file [58 pp. 791 kB] at:
http://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/policy_themes/docs/benchmarking.pdf

Benchmarking has infiltrated national and international health
policy at a rapid pace over the past few years. Indicators are
being developed to help nations benchmark the performance of
their health care systems against that of other countries, and
governments assess the performance of their health care systems
at devolved levels of service delivery.

There is a considerable literature assessing the merits and ca-
veats of different indicator systems. What is less available is
an analysis of the policy relevance of benchmarking: is bench-
marking achieving its objectives? Has it contributed to the bet-
terment of health care systems? Do the generated data help guide
policy-making? These are ambitious questions to address, yet it
is our hope that this report may serve as a starting point for
exploring them.

This report aims to propose a framework for assessing the value
and policy relevance of benchmarking initiatives in health. This
work is undertaken within the context of the Policy Futures re-
search programme supported by the Nuffield Trust, in that it as-
pires to offer a tool to evaluate the capability of benchmarking
to guide future health policy development. The framework pro-
posed in this document will serve as a basis for future work ex-
ploring specific areas of benchmarking and health policy..."


Benchmarking: "...a detailed analysis of comparative performance
to help identify what underlies differences between two similar
bodies."