ABSTRACT

The Government intend to benchmark the clinical performance of services with national reference data implemented through site inspections by the Commission for Health Improvement and implemented for cost effectiveness through the development of benchmarking. This chapter considers some of the issues around benchmarking laboratory performance and illustrates one particular approach to benchmarking cost-effectiveness. The pathology benchmarking team consists of nominees of the Royal College of Pathologists, the Association of Clinical Biochemists, the Institute of Biomedical Sciences and the British Association of Medical Managers together with a representative of Clinical Benchmarking Company (CBC) and two staff from Keele University. The Keele pathology benchmarking review continues to grow as new laboratories join and the analysis of the 1997/98 data, which is now underway, will involve over one-third of all trust hospital laboratories in the UK.