1. BENCH-CAN Internal evaluation 2nd semester
Sebestyén Edit
Health ClusterNet
3rd Core Group meeting
14 May 2013, Brussels

2. Evaluation activities in Semester 2
2nd round of internal evaluation has been carried out supported by monitoring data – report circulated – All partners filled in the 2nd questionnaire in April
External evaluator has been selected by NKI
An external evaluation plan will be developed
Future activities of the 2 types of evaluation will be kept realistic in terms of demands on time and input from project partners

3. Achievements – activities of semester 2
Managing and monitoring overall work processes; WP action plans; regular conference calls; 2nd Core Group meeting in Amsterdam; and preparation of the 3rd Core Group meeting (WP1).
Updated project website; draft newsletter; discussing the project at an OECI event at an EU Parliament meeting in February, 18 (WP2).
Report of the 1st round of internal evaluation; 2nd internal evaluation round; Terms of Reference for external evaluation; selecting external evaluator for Bench-Can (WP3).
Preparation of the benchmarking tool - feedbacks on the proposed indicators from pilot sites and other external sites (WP4).
Contacting missing sites by phone and post; replacement for missing pilot sites (Centro Riferimento Oncologico (CRO) in Aviano – Pordenone replacing Bari); internal review groups at 8 sites
Framework for carrying out budget impact analysis (completing BIA parameter template); first pilot centre is already collecting the data needed for the BIA (WP6).
Report on ‘Comparative analysis of benchmarking projects at the EU and international level’ sent to partners for review (WP7).

4. Progress in Semester 2 - Milestones
Identified milestones Semester 1
Planned month of achievement
Notes
Launch of project brochure (WP2) 3
still delayed (held back due to no final list of pilot sites yet)
Launch of project webpages (WP2) 6
achieved, but on-going update of the site
Launch of electronic newsletter (WP2)
achieved, but new article as part of the OECI newsletter is going to be published
An external evaluation is commissioned (WP3)
still delayed, commissioning is in progress at NKI, contracting in May
11 pilot sites are recruited with senior management commitment to addressing findings from the benchmarking exercise (WP5)
still delayed, 3 more Agreements are missing, 1 site (Bari) is replaced with Centro Riferimento Oncologico (CRO) in Aviano – Pordenone
11 internal review groups are established to contribute to BT1, BT2 & BIA preparation (WP5)
delayed, 8 review teams have been set up until M12

5. Progress in Semester 2 - Milestones
Identified milestones Semester 2
Planned month of achievement
Notes
The mapping exercise identifies and evaluates existing standards and criteria that supports the identification of best practice cases. 12
on-going activity, report is delayed (combined report will be produced by app. beginning of June 2014)
The scanning exercise offers a comparative analysis of how organisational dynamics and external environment in the 10 pilot sites effect benchmarking
Results of financial analysis of publicly available information
delayed, due to the time-delay in receiving all annual reports and thereby the limited amount of publicly available information in them made it difficult to complete this milestone. A report describing the problems encountered will be produced in the upcoming months
A comparative analysis of the BENCH-CAN project and similar EU & international projects/initiatives is conducted
achieved, report is shared for review

6. Key activities of the next semester
WP1
3rd Core Group meeting
Starting the preparation of the Interim technical & financial report
Conference calls
WP2
Launching project brochure
Publish OECI newsletter with Bench-Can information
On-going website update
WP3
3rd round of internal evaluation at M18
Developing external evaluation plan & carrying out external evaluation activities by the external evaluation team
Assisting the work of and cooperation with the external evaluators
WP4
Finalising & iloting the benchmark tool indicators
Reviewing the pilot centres with an external review team
Create Consumer Quality Index
WP5
Closing recruitment process of the pilot sites
Beginning the pre-piloting in June with 3 sites and the piloting in September 2014 with the rest of the sites (revised!!)
Setting up the internal review groups and organize the piloting exercises
Reviewing and commenting individual post benchmarking reports prepared by the external review group
Together with the external review team preparing improvement action plan template for the pilot sites.
WP6
Contacting pilot sites for data collection, organise travel and preparing the cost and volume collection at the pilot sites
WP7
Preparing the structure and content of manual

7. Recommendations General work processes
Partner collaboration and cooperation seem to be satisfactory
The general work processes have been a bit underrated due to difficulties during the recruitment process of the missing pilot sites
Negotiations with pending sites should be closed and efforts concentrated on motivating and assisting those sites that have already joined the project to get as much input for our work as possible

8. Recommendations Communication/information flow
Communication among the core partners is still to be improved
Exchanging important, relevant information as often as possible. Circulating key documents (outputs) of Work Packages among the partners to inform others about work done or in process.
Making all actions connected with the Project transparent as much as possible for each partner (dissemination as e.g. any articles, publications about the project; communication with the pilot sites; later on financial issues).
Providing prompt replies to questions if possible sent by the Lead partner and the project coordinator to project partners and vice versa is very helpful
Continuing the organisation of regular conference calls. The next conference call will be due around middle/end of June, app. one month after the CG meeting
Updating and sharing the individual WP action plans with partners to help each other following/reviewing work.

9. Recommendations Progress according to the work plan
There are a few outputs identified in the work plan that are delayed.
We have to speed up processes, and find alternative ways to overcome difficulties, collect or replace missing information where needed etc. As far as the interim report concerned it will be due at M18, so we have 5 more months to make up for the uncompleted work.

10. Thank you for your attention! edit@healthclusternet.eu