ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the concept of benchmarking, with a focus on the institutional benchmarking of antimicrobial use and bacterial resistance. The goal of benchmarking in the health care setting is simple: achieving the best health care delivery possible within the constraints of available resources. There are many compelling reasons to monitor and benchmark the use of antimicrobial agents. Institutional antimicrobial use typically represents 20% of all annual drug expenditures. Drug utilization is a measure that can be easily collected and benchmarked, though there are a number of ways to represent antibiotic use. For the benchmarking process to be valid, a great deal of care is required in selecting appropriate peer groups and in developing criteria for the identification of industry leaders. The selection of hospitals to constitute a peer group depends on the amount and types of specific data collected from each institution.
