Output and performance measurement in outpatient care

This paper presents a method for measuring output and overall performance in health service organizations. Performance is defined as aggregate output adjusted for quality and administrative efficiency. Output is measured in terms of patient visits weighted by the level of resource consumption required to produce different types of visits. Compared with the traditional method of performance evaluation, the proposed method offers a more objective and consistent approach for comparing the relative performance of competing health service organizations. Although the model is developed with a focus on outpatient health care agencies, it can also be easily adapted to measure the output and overall performance of other public service enterprises engaged in the same line of business.