Routine measurement of patient experience

Abstract

Patient experience is a key pillar of healthcare quality. We describe a framework of three short generic measures covering Patient Experience, Result Satisfaction and Service Integration. The Result Satisfaction measure is described for the first time.These measures capture twelve aspects of patient experience covering the relationship between patients and clinicians (Patient Experience), the immediate results of the consultation or treatment as perceived by patients (Result Satisfaction) and collaboration between different healthcare services and silos (Service Integration). Each measure has four items.These measures are compared with three national measures: the Friends and Family Test and the General Practice Patient Survey used in England, and HCAHPS used in US hospitals. The expected benefits of national measures are not being achieved and we need to think again about how best to tailor health services to meet patients’ expectations.The three measures described (Patient Experience, Result Satisfaction and Service Integration) are generic, short and have low reading ages. They share common forms and scoring schemes, which mean that they can be used individually or in combination at all levels of a healthcare provider.