Using external data and databases: issues and sources

Third party payers, employers, and accrediting organizations such as the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organization have played an important role in moving health care organizations toward the use of outcomes to measure quality. In addition, other external forces, such as shrinking health care resources and an increasingly competitive health care environment, have pressured organizations to implement continuous quality improvement (CQI) programs. These programs are an important component in effective and efficient organizational operations. Health care organizations must provide the best quality at the lowest cost to survive today. CQI programs incorporate internal and external comparisons to demonstrate improvement. Internal and external comparisons are important to validate the organization's level of quality. The article concentrates on the use of external comparisons, sources of external data or databases, and issues involved in external comparisons or benchmarking.