Best practice management: in search of hospital excellence

Abstract

Most hospitals in Europe are currently facing the same opportunities and threats: The phenomenon of the Aging Society in combination with the spread of chronic diseases and severe illnesses is causing an increasing demand for medical services with more and more treatment for multimorbid patients. Patients are becoming more demanding. They expect high-class medicine within a dignity-driven and painless healing environment. Yet, in the face of these increased demands, the financial limits have already been reached in all European countries. Therefore, hospitals will suffer from ever-increasing budget restrictions, which ultimately entail pressure to contain costs and to apply process reengineering and continuous performance improvement.

Benchmarking and best practice management are successfully proven management tools for enabling hospitals to achieve a higher level of medical and service capability, while simultaneously containing costs.

Cave

Comparisons based on only figures, such as length of stay, procedure costs, infection rate, or out-of-stock rates can lead to fatally misleading decisions. Figures and ratios are only the basis for detecting potential excellence. It is necessary to look behind the figures to understand how processes work and contribute to best-in-class results. Even best practices from quite different industries can enable hospitals to leapfrog results in patient orientation, clinical excellence, and economic efficiency.

Keywords:

• Generic benchmarking
• Leapfrog results
• Clinical process re-engineering
• Best practice assessment
• Indicators of intervention
• Management dashboard

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wilfried von Eiff

Wilfried von Eiff is the Director of the Center for Hospital Management, an Institute linked to the University of Muenster (Germany), where he has a chair for healthcare and hospital management. This institute is well known for international and national research, consulting and government advisory activities in the fields of health technology assessment, cost–benefit analysis of medical technology and clinical procedures, strategic management and mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare sector, risk management, and health service research. He is a founding member of EHMA Initiative ‘Best Practice Management in Healthcare and Hospital Management. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Kerckhoff Clinic Campus for Cardiology and Heart Surgery Bad Nauheim (Germany). Before this he was the Director of the University Clinic of Giessen and Member of the Board of Management of an international automotive company. He holds a PhD degree from the faculty of business administration and a PhD degree from the faculty of medicine.