North West Clinical Practice Benchmarking Group: Principles, processes and evaluations

Abstract

The principles and processes of the North West Regional Clinical Practice Benchmarking Group are explained. Using a series of data collected over the past four years, the paper demonstrates how practice has been standardised and developed across the regional children's hospital and community services. This is undertaken by exploring the Acute Pain benchmark. The group is currently undergoing an external evaluation and many issues raised in the preliminary draft of the evaluation are explored.