Background Benchmarking is a process designed to discover best practise through a comparison of various competing methods.

The use of drug benchmarking can identify problems in health team practise, yield a clearer understanding of competitor hospitals and aid in establishing attainable goals.

Purpose To identify differences in drug expenditure between two hospitals.

Materials and Methods Two hospitals with the same number of occupied beds, size and medicines procurement systems were evaluated for drug expenditure. Analysis included financial measurements: expenditure per hospitalisation day, per patient, cost grading (Pareto), drug inflation index and cost analysis by a time & motion study. Clinical measurements used policies of checking the suitability of drug use and antimicrobial streamlining programmes.

Results Hospital A’ drug expenses (+11.5%) and cost/patient (+35%) were higher than in hospital B’, the main differences being attributed to the use of infusions and antibiotics. A comparison between IV infusions showed a higher expenditure in hospital A’ (48%) compared to B’; differences were attributed to the practise models of drug preparation and administration. In hospital A’ all drugs were diluted in a minibag under aseptic conditions, while in hospital B’, nurses diluted the drug on the wards and administered it through a buretrol device. A cost analysis time & motion study was performed to find out the cost of each practise model; 11.3 Euro/unit in hospital A’ versus 13 Euro in hospital B’. Hospital A’ used PTZ’ treatment based on a streaming system & antibiogram assistance, while in B’, use was according to physician approval and a system of switching.

Conclusions This survey has several limitations: the difficulty of accurately reflecting prescribing practises, equipment and patient case mix. Nevertheless, the benchmarking exercise provided valuable data, which can be used to target key areas for cost control and performance.

No conflict of interest.