The New South Wales Medical Record Department Benchmarking Project: a work in progress.

Benchmarking is having an increasing impact on the health information management (HIM) profession. With the current focus in healthcare on competition and outcomes, the challenge for managers of MRDs (predominantly HIMs) lies in proving that what they do, and the way they do it, achieves results which benefit the organisation and, ultimately, the patient or client. The Medical Record Department (MRD) Benchmarking Project is an initiative being undertaken on behalf of the HIM profession in New South Wales by the Health Information Management Association of Australia Limited (NSW Branch). The project has five phases and this article describes Phases 1 and 2, which comprised a survey of MRDs to identify any current performance indicator/benchmarking activities and to determine priorities for benchmarking. As the project progresses, further articles will appear in Health Information Management.