Stakeholder perspectives on outpatient services performance: what patients, clinicians and managers want to know

Abstract

The development of performance measures in outpatient services is trailing in the wake of an emphasis on inpatientmeasures. Research was undertaken at The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital (RVEEH) to determine key areasfor the development of performance measures in eye outpatient services from the perspective of three stakeholder groups:clinicians, managers and patients. The study identified four key areas for the development of performancemeasurement: waiting time to first outpatient appointment, patient discharge from outpatient clinics, waiting timein clinic and patient throughput. It was also shown that there are some significant differences of opinion betweenstakeholder groups. Such similarities and differences are unlikely to be unique to RVEEH and may serve as usefulprompts for other organisations considering outpatient performance measures.