Peer Groups

As part of Total Benchmark Solution's benchmarking services we have developed a series of Quality Reports that can be prepared utilizing an unlimited number of peer groups. The peer groups are based upon a number of parameters to categorize healthcare organizations in the United States to enable healthcare organizations to quickly and easily compare their performance to similar institutions. We have developed definitions for over 25 types of healthcare organizations from Ambulance Organizations to General Medical and Surgical Hospital / Healthcare Organization to Urgent Care Centers.

Total Benchmark Solution, LLC has defined the following standard peer groups for Quality Benchmark Solution:

• Nationwide – Includes all facilities by type of healthcare organization
• States – Includes all facilities within each state
• Bed Size Grouping – Includes all facilities grouped by:
  • 0 to 50 Beds
  • 51 to 150 Beds
  • 151 to 250 Beds
  • 251 to 350 Beds
  • 351 to 500 Beds
  • Greater than 500 beds
  Hospital bed sizes are based upon the bed size data that hospitals reported to CMS.
• Teaching Hospitals – Includes all facilities that are considered to be major teaching facilities.
• University HealthSystem Consortium Hospitals – Includes all facilities that have been identified to be members of the University HealthSystem Consortium.
• VHA Hospitals (nationwide and by VHA region) – these peer groups include all facilities that have been identified as members of VHA. In addition to the nationwide VHA peer group there are also the peer groups for each VHA region:
• VHA West Coast
• VHA Mountain States
• VHA Upper Midwest
• VHA Mid-America
• VHA Oklahoma/Arkansas
• VHA Southwest
• VHA Michigan
• VHA Central
• VHA Gulf States
• VHA Southeast
• VHA Georgia
• VHA Empire State
• VHA Pennsylvania
• VHA Central Atlantic
• VHA New England
• VHA Northeast
• VHA Metro
• VHA East Coast
• Health Systems – there are over 400 health systems in the United States that represent over ½ of the nation’s hospital care. Each health systems been setup as a peer group.
• Premier Hospitals – Includes all facilities that have been identified to be members of Premier, Inc.
• CPOE Hospitals – Includes facilities that have been identified to be users of Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE)
• Heart Hospitals – Includes facilities that have been identified to be Heart Specialty Hospitals
• Children Hospitals and Related Institutions – Includes facilities that have been identified to be Children’s Specialty Hospitals and Related Institutions

World Class Performance

TBS has setup four peer groups of top performers to assist healthcare organizations in benchmarking to the best of the best. By benchmarking to top performing organizations, a healthcare organization will understand what is needed to achieve world-class performance. The following are the four top performer peer groups that TBS offers:

• Best Acute Care Hospitals based upon the CMS Hospital Compare Data – Includes the facilities that ranked in the Best Hospitals for all of the CMS Quality Measures for the most currently released time period.
• Top Performing Hospitals – Includes the facilities that ranked in the Best Hospitals based upon the following nine measures:
• Risk-adjusted mortality index
• Risk-adjusted complications index
• Risk-adjusted patient safety index
• Severity-adjusted average length of stay
• Expense per adjusted discharge, case-mix and wage-adjusted
• Profitability (operating profit margin)
• Cash to total debt ratio
• Tangible assets (net plant, property, and equipment) per adjusted discharge
• Growth in percent of community served
• Hospitals & Health Networks Most Wired – The annual Hospitals & Health Networks' Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study asks hospitals to report on their use of IT in five key areas: business processes, customer service, safety and quality, workforce and public health and safety. More information can be found at: US News Most Wired
• US News Best Hospitals(Honor Roll) – Of the 176 medical centers that appear in this year's edition of America's Best Hospitals, 16 earned Honor Roll status, a mark of particular distinction. To be on the Honor Roll, a hospital had to demonstrate breadth of excellence by achieving a high ranking in no fewer than six specialties. The Honor Roll order is based on a point system that awards 2 points per specialty for ranking close to the top and 1 point for ranking slightly below that. More information can be found at: US News Best Hospitals

Custom Peer Groups

TBS also allows organizations to create custom peer groups to use in analyzing performance measure data. The custom peer groups give your organization unlimited potential to create peer groups for any healthcare organization grouping and quality measure. The following guidelines for creating peer groups are strictly followed in order to preserve the privacy of other healthcare organizations:

• Public Data
• Any grouping of healthcare organizations
• Side by side analysis
• Competitor Analysis (selection of facilities within x miles of a zip code)
• Subscriber Submitted Data
• Requires 5 unrelated facilities in the peer group in order to mask other facility data
• Side by side analysis (with subscriber(s) agreement to share private data)

Side by Side Analysis

Our reports simplify analysis of each facility in your health system or peer group by showing the “Side by Side” comparisons of each facility’s score for each period, current year peer group rank, percentile with percentile graphic, trend graphic, and footnotes.

Customer Request for Additional Peer Groups

We are continually looking for ways to enhance the peer groupings and comparisons offered in the Total Benchmark Solution, LLC databases. If a client has the desire for any peer grouping that is not provided, we will work to promptly prepare a standard grouping to meet the request.