Clinical leaders’ views on the usefulness of patient survey questions
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Clinical leaders’ views on the usefulness and credibility of patient survey questions: a telephone interview and email study.
IRAS ID
198396
Contact name
Rachel Reeves
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Greenwich
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC’s) annual Inpatient Surveys provide reliable data on NHS patients’ experiences of care in England’s acute hospitals. However, the surveys’ usefulness and reliability are compromised by the questionnaire’s length. The response rate has fallen from 64% in 2002 to 47% in 2014 as the number of questions has increased. Not all of the questions relate to patients’ high priorities, so NHS organisations may respond to issues that are easier to fix, while neglecting important issues. There has been stasis or decline in many important aspects of ward care, such as prompt attention to call bells.(Reeves, West 2015) Recent research has demonstrated that ward-specific survey data can stimulate highly significant improvements in patients’ responses to subsequent surveys but NHS staff judge some of the results to be more credible and actionable than others. (Reeves, West, Barron 2013) A validated ward-focused shorter questionnaire is therefore needed.
To date, the NHS staff tasked with responding to patient feedback have not been formally consulted about the content of the national patient surveys. In this study, NHS patient experience leaders will be asked which questions are most useful for monitoring the quality of care and for stimulating improvements. These findings will be used (alongside the results of research on patients’ views and priorities and secondary analysis of historical Inpatient Survey data) to inform the reduction of the current 100-question Inpatient Questionnaire to a shorter ward-focused Ward Improvement Patient Survey (WIPS) of approximately 30 questions.The research will comprise: (1) An initial E-mail to relevant staff working in acute NHS trusts; (2) telephone and e-mail follow-up to provide further information and obtain consent to participate; (3) Semi-structured telephone interviews; (4) a second-round of telephone interviews and/or e-mails to give participants an opportunity to comment on the acceptability of the selected subset of questions.
REC name
N/A
REC reference
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