SPECIAL TOPIC Benchmarking Academic Plastic Surgery Services in the United States Elaine Horibe Song, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A. Afshin Shirazian, M.B.A. Brian Binns, M.B.A. Yuedi Fleming, M.B.A. Lydia Masako Ferreira, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A. Rod J. Rohrich, M.D. Kodi Azari, M.D. Los Angeles, Calif.; Sa ˜o Paulo, Brazil; and Dallas, Texas Summary: Rising health care costs and increasingly demanding patients are only some of the challenges faced by academic plastic surgery services in their pursuit of excellence in education, research, and patient care. Benchmarking, when correctly applied, is a powerful tool that can help services learn from each other’s experiences. This study aimed at creating the first benchmarking report summarizing performance indicators and management practices of some of the most complete academic plastic surgery units in the United States. Results provide an opportunity for plastic surgery leaders to benchmark against their own units, identify eventual gaps, and improve their performance as needed. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 129: 1407, 2012.) I n March of 2010, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, a bill that aims at overhaul- ing the American health care system. One of the bill’s main focuses is to deter costs from rising un- controllably. However, experts forecast that even af- ter successful implementation of the new cost-con- taining measures, it will take several years until the long-term health care cost curve converges toward the inflation curve. 1–3 Meanwhile, health care pro- viders struggle to adapt to a new environment where patients demand more for less. 4 Leaders of academic plastic surgery services need to use extra diligence to make their units thrive in the current economic context. In addition to de- livering highly specialized care, academic services are responsible for forming new leaders in plastic surgery and for expanding medical knowledge through research. The three academic pillars (i.e., patient care, research, and education) are inter- twined and interdependent in most academic ser- vices. Nevertheless, reduced reimbursement for pro- fessional services and tighter private and public funding have imposed a shift in priorities for the majority of academic programs. 5,6 As a result, more time is spent on revenue-generating clinical activities than on teaching or research activities. To manage their units, chairs/chiefs often use methods acquired over years of experience, and often these methods are the ingredients that make their services successful. By systematically studying practices of successful units, academic institutions can accelerate their own progress. This is the es- sence of benchmarking, a powerful tool that, when used properly, is the best tool with which to efficiently overcome challenges posed by the cur- rent state of health care. 7 Widely used in other fields, benchmarking is defined by the American Productivity and Quality Center as “the process of identifying, learning, and adapting outstanding practices and processes from another organiza- tion to help improve performance.” The field of management is rich in examples of market leaders such as Toyota, Xerox, and IBM, which routinely apply benchmarking practices to hone their com- petitive advantages. The aim of this study was to create the first benchmarking report summarizing performance indicators and management practices of some of the U.S. academic plastic surgery units with well- developed patient care, research, and education pillars. Results provide an opportunity for plastic surgery leaders to benchmark against their own units, identify eventual gaps, and improve their performance as needed. From the Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles; the Division of Plastic Surgery, Federal University of Sa ˜o Paulo; the Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; and the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. Received for publication September 12, 2011; accepted January 3, 2012. Copyright ©2012 by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons DOI: 10.1097/PRS.0b013e31824f8f16 Disclosure: This study was funded by authors only. The authors have no financial interest to declare in relation to the content of this article. www.PRSJournal.com 1407