A proposal for a centralized patient record database: the need to identify patient data elements to measure costs, clinical outcomes and benchmarking

摘要

Although health care industry benchmarking is a feasible and worthwhile objective, the lack of consistent and accessible data makes it extremely difficult to do any reasonable comparisons. Therefore, this paper concentrates on the first phase of research pertaining to the identification of data measures and information requirements solely. We conclude with an investigation into whether the creation of a centralized database is a necessary and sufficient condition to begin benchmarking in the health industry. Future research will focus on these areas. [References: 14]