This study aims to explore how meaningful energy benchmarks reflecting good energy management and design can be constructed for hospital buildings, a category encompassing complex buildings with different set-ups and large variability between them. Current energy targets are sometimes considered of limited use by facility professionals in health care because they do not take account of differences in service delivery between acute hospitals which result in differing use of medical equipment and requirements for room conditioning. For this study, the electricity use of a number of department types has been quantified using on-site measurements. Findings confirm that different hospital departments have hugely varied electricity consumption characteristics. Wards, day clinics and some other departments have lower average consumption intensities which are reasonably well reflected by current hospital electricity benchmarks. Theatres, laboratories and also departments such as imaging and radiotherapy showed much higher consumption intensities exceeding available targets. A revision of current energy benchmarks for the latter category is therefore strongly recommended. It is further proposed to develop composite benchmarks for hospitals taking into account differing energy intensities at a departmental level for guidance and as basis for certification. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.