Impacts and Uniqueness of patient reported quality in health care

Respect for patients needs and wishes is central to a humane health care system. To better meet patients’ needs, providers have expressed increased interest in using patients’ evaluations and reports to complement other methods of quality assessment and assurance.(1)

Patients can leave providers they are not happy with or they can voices their opinions in an attempt to change care. By disclosing health care report cards, hospitals can be stimulated and guided quality improvement efforts.(2)

Patient perceptions may be more sensitive to differences across health-care delivery systems than are many traditional measures of quality (eg, risk-adjusted mortality or complication rates.) (3)

Obtaining patient perceptions may also be less expensive and more reliable than other methods of assessing quality, such as physician peer review.(3)

PRO can capture positive aspects of care and better complement newer models of quality improvement.(3)

Patients’ perceptions of care and their satisfaction are directly related to decisions to seek medical care, to change providers, and to comply with recommended treatment strategies.(3)

There are several ways of using consumer information to improve the quality of medical care. These include (1)providing feedback to consumers to facilitate choice; (2) providing feedback to plans and clinicians for internal quality improvement; (3)providing feedback to purchasers to influence choice; (4) using information from consumers to set standards for services and marketing; and (5) establishing rules and regulations based on consumers’ values.(4)

Clinical quality indicators are not familiar with patients for choosing a preferred health care provider.(5)

Providing physician specific performance reports to the public may be viewed favorably by consumers of health care and have a significant impact on physician selection and hence quality improvement.(6)

Summary

Impact

  1.To understand patients needs for health care.

  2.Enhance hospitals' health care quality.

  3.Using information from consumers to set standards for services and marleting.

  4.providing feedback to consumers to facilitate choice.

Uniqueness

  1.More sensitive to difference across health-care delivery system.

  2.Capture positive aspect of care.

  3.Directly related to decisions to seek medical care to change providers, and to comply with recommended treatment strategies.

1.     Cleary PD, Edgmanlevitan S, Roberts M, Moloney TW, McMullen W, Walker JD, et al. PATIENTS EVALUATE THEIR HOSPITAL-CARE - A NATIONAL SURVEY. Health Affairs 1991;10(4):254-267.

2.     Cleary PD. The increasing importance of patient surveys. Quality in Health Care 1999;8(4):212-212.

3.     Rosenthal GE, Shannon SE. The use of patient perceptions in the evaluation of health-care delivery systems. Medical Care 1997;35(11):NS58-NS68.

4.     Cleary PD, EdgmanLevitan S. Health care quality - Incorporating consumer perspectives. Jama-Journal of the American Medical Association 1997;278(19):1608-1612.

5.     Cheng SH, Ho YC, Chung KP. Hospital quality information for patients in Taiwan: can they understand it? International Journal for Quality in Health Care 2002;14(2):155-160.

6.     Cheng SH, Song HY. Physician performance information and consumer choice: a survey of subjects with the freedom to choose between doctors. Quality & Safety in Health Care 2004;13(2):98-101.