Applicability and potential benefits of benchmarking in Brazilian clinical laboratory services Ce ´sar Alex de Oliveira Galoro Laborato ´rio de Ana ´lises Clı ´nicas do Hospital e Maternidade Celso Pierro, Campinas, Brazil and Disciplina de Patologia Clı ´nica & LIM 03 HCFMUSP, Departamento de Patologia FMUSP, Sa ˜ o Paulo, Brazil, and Maria Elizabete Mendes and Marcelo Nascimento Burattini Divisa ˜ o de Laborato ´rio Central, Sa ˜ o Paulo, SP, Brazil and Disciplina de Patologia Clı ´nica & LIM 03 HCFMUSP, Departamento de Patologia FMUSP, Sa ˜ o Paulo, Brazil Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test the applicability and benefits of benchmarking as a tool for quality analysis in Brazilian laboratory medical services. Design/methodology/approach – A primary observational study is performed in eight hospital laboratories by tracking the receipt, analysis and return to participants of monitoring reports relating to several quality indicators for the years 2005 and 2006. Whenever possible, the paper applies 6s criteria as an independent assessment of process quality. Findings – Data obtained for the eight laboratories showed a monthly average (^ SD) of 178,579 (^153,670) tests performed per laboratory, with 40,256 (^44,858) requisitions and 4.77 (^ 1.33) tests per requisition. Overall, productivity was 7.35 (^2.46) tests per man-hour of work (MHW), increasing to 15.36 (^ 6.00) when considering only the analytical sector staff. An average of 1.63 (^1.14) lost hours per hundred MHW were reported (level 3.6s), with 3.86 (^5.10) accidents at work reported (AWR) per hundred thousand MHW (level 5.5s) and 4.22 (^ 2.61) redraws per thousand requisitions attended (level 4.1s). The turn-around-times were 2.25 (^0.98), 3.29 (^2.12) and 8.54 (^3.25) hours for glucose level, haemogram and human immunodeficiency virus serology, respectively. Practical implications – Benchmarking proved to be a useful and feasible tool for quality management in Brazilian clinical laboratories, particularly when associated with independent tools for evaluating the quality of laboratorial processes. Originality/value – This is the first Brazilian study reporting that benchmarking provides useful information on the performance of different clinical laboratory processes and, therefore, could become an important tool for laboratory management. Keywords Laboratories, Benchmarking, Quality indicators, Six sigma, Medicines, Brazil Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction Clinical laboratories have undergone various transformations in recent decades. Pressured by economic factors and increased technological complexity (Plebani, 2006), The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1463-5771.htm Brazilian clinical laboratory services 817 Benchmarking: An International Journal Vol. 16 No. 6, 2009 pp. 817-830 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1463-5771 DOI 10.1108/14635770911000132