Healthcare organizations increasingly employ benchmarking to save costs and improve product and service quality by comparing themselves to an industry standard, a peer organization, or an external benchmark. Benchmarking is an important feature of quality management since it allows companies to constantly evaluate how they stack up against industry leaders (Purushotham et al., 2018).

Improving the quality of treatment while remaining competitive in the market and within ever-tighter budgets is a challenge that today’s healthcare executives must address. Performance may be measured against benchmarks that represent industry best practices (Imboden et al., 2020). In hospitals, these benchmarks are used to measure performance against those of similar facilities and national organizations. Instead of comparing hospitals against one another, as is done in competitive benchmarking, hospitals engage in collaborative benchmarking to improve their overall performance in a certain area (Imboden et al., 2020).

The Mercy Medical Center in Minnesota is consistently ranked as one of the top hospitals in the United States (Vila Health, 2018). To accomplish ambitious objectives and to keep its place as one of the best medical coverage programs in the country, it must continue to push itself. Nevertheless, it is of the utmost importance that the hospital abides by all of the necessary legislation on the national, state, and local levels. The dashboard was used to create metrics to conduct a study of guidelines for diagnosing and treating diabetes. We can evaluate performance using these measures, get insight into areas in which we may be able to make changes, and raise the bar for quality. This paper aims to provide policy and practice recommendations to resolve a deficiency in fulfilling a benchmark, as well as evidence-based, practice guidelines to enhance the performance of a targeted benchmark. In addition to that, the relevance of stakeholder engagement as well as the effect of environmental factors on practice standards will be investigated throughout this paper.

Need for Creating a Policy and Practice Guidelines

Current Benchmark for the Organization

The statistics from the dashboard reveal concerns over a fall in HgbA1c tests as well as a simultaneous decrease in foot inspections. Both of these trends are concerning. According to the MMC dashboard, the number of inspections dropped dramatically between the first and fourth quarters. The frequency of HbA1c checks and foot examinations has dropped by 95% (Vila Health, 2018). According to the findings of the National Healthcare Quality and Disparity Report, patients with diabetes who received diabetic foot care and patient education as a component of their short-stay home health care fulfilled national objectives at a rate of 98.6 % (National Healthcare Quality and Disparity Report, 2020). This fraction also takes into account diabetic patients who were at least 40 years old and who had at least two hemoglobin A1c tests carried out during the corresponding fiscal year (National Healthcare Quality and Disparity Report, 2020). The achievement of a value that is at least 90% of the value of the benchmark would be considered a successful effort for MMC.

 Effect of Benchmark Underperformance

Patients diagnosed with diabetes need a comprehensive treatment plan that is carried out by a group of medical professionals who are specialists in their respective disciplines. HbA1c testing and diabetic foot exams are very necessary to aid patients in managing their disease for a longer period and to discover potential issues associated with diabetes at an earlier stage (Manu et al., 2018). Screening for diabetic foot issues, which may result in permanent impairment or even death, is thus regarded as a crucial component of the management of diabetes. According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), testing for hemoglobin A1c is one of the most common methods used in diabetes screening and is regarded as an essential component of diabetes therapy and management, thus MMC should raise the bar of quality and make policies to resolve the underperforming benchmarks (Manu et al., 2018).

Repercussions of not making any Changes

The increased financial burden and decreased quality of life would be experienced by diabetic patients as a direct result of inadequate treatment standards for diabetes (American Diabetes Association, 2020). Careful management of patients suffering from this condition is required for MMC to continue to provide high-quality treatment and to retain its position as one of the premier healthcare facilities in the state (Vila Health, 2018). Type 2 diabetics have their blood sugar checked regularly to monitor their condition and detect any issues early on. A