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

The development of performance measures in outpatient services is trailing in the wake of an emphasis on inpatient measures. Research was undertaken at The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital (RVEEH) to determine key areas for 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 performance measurement: waiting time to first outpatient appointment, patient discharge from outpatient clinics, waiting time in clinic and patient throughput. It was also shown that there are some significant differences of opinion between stakeholder groups. Such similarities and differences are unlikely to be unique to RVEEH and may serve as useful prompts for other organisations considering outpatient performance measures.