Introduction
Benchmarking is a critical process in healthcare and health information management (HIM) that allows professionals to evaluate the quality of processes and determine whether the implementation of new practices is necessary. Moreover, it assesses specific performance metrics, enabling the comparison of the organization’s productivity with other facilities in the industry. The current essay demonstrates the importance of benchmarking and its primary principles by analyzing the case study “Benchmarking in Practice.”
“Benchmarking in Practice” Scenario
In this scenario, the HIM director utilized the principles of benchmarking to improve the performance of the organization’s transcription unit. Namely, she followed all five guidelines proposed by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and other relevant information sources. The HIM director chose a specific process for benchmarking, examined best-in-industry practices, assessed the appropriateness of the programs, implemented the policy, and conducted monthly evaluations. Extensive academic literature confirms the significance of evidence-based approaches in HIM (Fenton & Smith, 2019). For instance, the consideration of the unit’s performance based on specific KPI metrics, such as the production of 140 lines per hour, is an effective method for accurate assessment (Fenton & Smith, 2019). In summary, the HIM director adhered to primary benchmarking principles and successfully improved the unit’s productivity.
HIM Director’s Approach to Benchmarking
Consequently, it is critical to identify the exact steps that allowed the HIM director to boost the organization’s performance. After choosing the process for benchmarking, she assessed the unit’s technologies and conducted a literature search to find alternatives and effective programs that could benefit the organization. Moreover, the HIM director talked to her peers, attended the conference on transcription technologies, and visited software vendors to find the most appropriate way to improve performance. Ultimately, after finding a facility of similar size with better KPI metrics, she thoroughly assessed its transcription protocols, incentive programs, and other strategies that contributed to its success. This background work allowed the HIM director to understand the problem in greater detail and implement the most effective practice in the organization.
Remote Transcription Work
Lastly, the HIM director proposed an incentive program that enabled remote transcription work and allowed transcriptionists more creative freedom and flexible scheduling. The proposal itself was an appropriate decision since it theoretically benefited all stakeholders. Many studies confirm the positive relationship between remote work and employees’ productivity and mental health (Lund et al., 2020). Although it significantly depends on the industry and occupation, allowing transcriptionists to work from home is seemingly a practical decision and beneficial incentive.
However, according to the scenario, digital dictation was one of the processes that could allow remote work. The adoption of unfamiliar technologies and overall resistance to change could potentially threaten the incentive’s effectiveness (Nilsen et al., 2020). Namely, employees needed time to adjust to new methods of transcription, and the immediate shift to remote work with limited communication was not necessarily a correct decision. In other words, while the incentive is beneficial to the organization, it might have been more appropriate to allocate some time for employees to adjust to new technologies in a familiar environment. Additionally, since the scenario occurred in the early 2000s, there were limited communication capabilities, which could further obstruct the effectiveness of remote work.
Conclusion
Benchmarking is a highly effective method of evaluation and adoption of new technologies to improve organizational performance. The current analysis has thoroughly described how the HIM director utilized the core principles of benchmarking to significantly improve the productivity of the transcription unit. The only concerning incentive in this scenario is the shift to remote work, which could potentially benefit all stakeholders but could also significantly reduce the unit’s performance due to the introduction of new technologies. Working from home has many benefits, but remote work in the early 2000s also implied limited communication with other units, making the transcription processes more challenging. However, even if the incentive had failed to an extent, the monthly evaluations according to the benchmarking principles would have helped identify the cause of the problem.
References
Fenton, S. H., & Smith, D. H. (2019). Evidence-based operations management in health information management: A case study. Perspectives in Health Information Management, 16.
Nilsen, P., Seing, I., Ericsson, C., Birken, S. A., & Schildmeijer, K. (2020). Characteristics of successful changes in health care organizations: An interview study with physicians, registered nurses and assistant nurses. BMC Health Services Research, 20(1), 1-8. Web.
Lund, S., Madgavkar, A., Manyika, J., & Smit, S. (2020). What’s next for remote work: An analysis of 2,000 tasks, 800 jobs, and nine countries. McKinsey Global Institute, 1-13.