Systematically developed statements to assist practitioner and patients in determining appropriate health care for specific circumstances. Statements include the indications for doing a procedure or treatment and the accepted management of specific clinical problems. Many of these clinical or practice guidelines have been developed by National Institutes of Health, Agency for Health Care Practice Research. Some of the NIH guidelines are based on research done on outcomes of care. For example, the benchmarks for care of premature infants in rural small hospitals without neonatologists would emphasize appropriate emergency care and safe transport while the benchmarks for preemie care at level three nurseries would include preparing parents for home care.
Benchmarks have a long history in business to guide appropriate comparisons.
Benchmarks are somewhat new but used frequently now in health care. However, as the example illustrates comparing outcomes from one agency to another or one service to another must consider the resources of each.