Our Benchmarking Process

Performance measurement means everything in the competitive healthcare climate in which hospitals and other healthcare organizations operate. There is increasing pressure to deliver higher quality care at lower costs.

One area where hospitals can favorably impact patient care as well as their bottom line is the management of their hospital professional liability program. How does your program performance compare to that of other hospital systems across the country? What measures can be put in place to improve your program performance and lower costs? Healthcare facilities have turned to benchmarking in other areas – why not in evaluating their risk management program?

How can benchmarking make a difference in my program?
In the healthcare environment, a mistake may not only be costly but can mean the difference between life or death. That is why managing healthcare professional liability today means more than simply securing an insurance policy. It means establishing programs and procedures that will prevent professional liability accidents and errors and actively manage those that do occur. Benchmarking provides hospital executives the information needed to focus their patient safety and quality improvement resources to achieve higher standards and lower costs.

How can a hospital benchmark its hospital professional liability program?
Berkley Medical Excess Underwriters is a hospital professional liability insurance company that has made extensive investments in information and technology. The result is highly advanced and exclusive benchmarking capabilities specifically for the healthcare industry.

What is unique about BerkleyMed’s benchmarking capabilities?BerkleyMed goes above and beyond the usual frequency and severity benchmarks that are available. Digging deeper into financial measures as well as claims types and procedures allows for a more meaningful analysis with a more focused and actionable result. For example, expense analysis by claim type provides insight into efficiencies that may be gained in defense of a claim.

Utilizing the countless data elements that are available, BerkleyMed is able to provide a multitude of financial and clinical comparisons. From financial metrics and total cost of risk reviews to employed physician and high risk procedure analysis, we continue to focus on achievement of best practices program performance. The result is improved decision-making that enables hospitals to favorably impact patient care and the bottom line.

On what information does BerkleyMed base its benchmarking?
BerkleyMed’s database of information is far more expansive and sophisticated than any other source of information within the industry. BerkleyMed has collected and analyzed over 400,000 hospital professional liability claims. This information was assembled from over 500 healthcare delivery systems representing approximately 2,200 hospitals across the country. In addition, it is coupled with extensive clinical and operating statistics from a variety of sources that allows for the selection of peer groups that are closely matched to your organization’s operating environment. Industry data in this detail cannot be purchased directly from any outside source such as a rating bureau or data collection agency. It is purely the result of BerkleyMed’s internal efforts and capabilities.

How can I access BerkleyMed’s benchmarking services?
Being a BerkleyMed customer allows you to receive customized reports developed from our proprietary database of healthcare liability. Creating efficiency in program design is the cornerstone of BerkleyMed’s strategy. Utilizing the extensive resources we have available, we work with our customers to help them develop the most efficient, cost effective professional liability program. Then we continue to partner with our customer’s to identify areas of improvement to achieve best practices program performance within their organization. As a provider of excess professional liability insurance, all of this service is a standard part of BerkleyMed’s service offerings for our lead customers.

What can I expect from a BerkleyMed benchmarking analysis?
Using selected peer groups, BerkleyMed’s benchmarking analysis is customized to meet your individual facility’s needs. The report can be a standard compilation of typically sought after metrics or tailor made to focus only on those areas that are of interest to your organization. BerkleyMed’s benchmarking report is extremely valuable for organizations that are trying to drill into a particular cost driver within the risk financing program.