Practice re-engineering through the use of benchmarks: Part 1.

Benchmarking can be a useful tool to assist practices in successfully re-engineering their practices to achieve performance improvement. Unfortunately, although many practices identify benchmarks, they often are not integrated into day-to-day operations or used to create accountability or re-engineer processes. Part 1 of this series describes the nine-step benchmarking process and discusses how to successfully use the process to improve performance through process re-engineering. Part 2 will identify key indicators to measure performance and explain how to integrate their use into the practice's daily operations.