Benchmarking operating room departments in the Netherlands: Evaluation of a benchmarking collaborative between eight university medical centres
Purpose Benchmarking is increasingly considered a useful management instrument to improve performance in healthcare. The purpose of this paper is to assess if a nationwide long term benchmarking collaborative between operating room (OR) departments of university medical centres in the Netherlands leads to benefits in OR management and to evaluate if the initiative meets the requirements of the 4P model. Design/methodology/approach The evaluation was based on the 4P model (purposes, performance indicators, participating organisations, performance management system) developed in former studies. A mixed methods design was applied, consisting of document study, observations, interviews as well as analysing OR performance data using SPSS statistics. Findings Collaborative benchmarking has benefits different from mainly performance improvement and identification of performance gaps. It is interesting that, since 2004, the OR benchmarking initiative still endures after already existing for ten years. A ke.