We report on the development, testing and implementation of a bespoke benchmarking framework and assess its influence on the open innovation performance of new healthcare infrastructure. The research was developed from a series of 10 workshops, which took place after a four-month public consultation. This investigation borrows a pragmatic paradigm and is inductive and qualitative by nature, but uses quantitative scoring within the benchmarking assessment. The established framework is composed of 4 dimensions: Infrastructure Design & Management; Service Provision & Deployment; Operational Systems and Decision-Making Enablers, and 39 criteria. The assessment of the focal healthcare infrastructure is provided, along with three specific external cases, two from the UK: P and W, and one from the USA: SH, considered as best practice. Importantly, the study also reports on the experts’ reflective analysis, to examine in depth how benchmarking became the catalyst and knowledge management platform triggering open innovation.