Abstract
This papers applies a multiconstitutency approach to assessing organizational performance in Canadian general hospital psychiatric units and provincial psychiatric hospitals. In the absence of reliable and valid outcome measures, researchers and administrators have increasingly considered the views of external constituencies as a means of both defining the criteria for effective performance and actually assessing organizational performance. Key constituencies included psychiatric unit staff, psychiatric hospital administrators, and directors of community agencies providing mental health and related services. Opinions about organizational roles were found to exist among constituencies and among professional groups. Perceptions of organizational performance were highest for primary roles and substantially lowest for roles of secondary importance to the constituency. Future analyses of this type could help to validate the use of both constitutency measures and more traditional performance measures. While constitutency views may be seen as subjective, they are nevertheless key to building effective mental health service delivery systems.
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Dr. Pierre Leichner, formerly of the Douglas Hospital (Verdun, Que.) and now at Kingston Psychiatric Hospital; and Michel Perrault, Ph.D. of the Douglas Hospital collaborated in the translation and adaptation of the questionnaire for the Quebec setting. Their participation is gratefully acknowledged. Funded in part by grants from the Canadian National Health and Welfare Research and Development Program, and by the Ontario Mental Health Foundation.
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Fried, B.J., Worthington, C. The multiconstitutency approach to organizational performance assessment: A Canadian mental health system application. Community Ment Health J 31, 11–24 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02188977
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02188977