Determining doctors' views on performance measurement and management of their clinical practice

Introducing performance measurement and management of clinicians' practice may improve clinical productivity and quality of patient care; however the attitudes of doctors to such approaches are poorly defined. This was investigated through an anonymous qualitative postal questionnaire in a large district general hospital. A total of 93 from an invited cohort of 368 senior grade doctors participated. The results suggested that doctors understood the need to evaluate and manage their performance in medical practice, and address poor performance, but felt that current methods were inadequate. This principally related to poor validation and a lack of clinical ownership of data. The role of financial incentivisation was unclear but value was attributed to local clinical leadership, professional autonomy, recognition, and peer-group comparisons. This suggests that clinicians support the use of data-based performance measurement and management; however how it is undertaken is key to successful clinical engagement.