While many patients consider how well pain, nausea or treatment side effects were managed when they evaluate the quality of care they received, information on these experiences is not always collected, according to a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researcher.
Ethan Basch, MD, director of the Cancer Outcomes Research Program at UNC Lineberger in Chapel Hill, N.C., suggests formal assessments of provider and health system performance incorporate the values that patients care most about.
To create a playbook on how to best develop, analyze and use patient-focused measures, Dr. Basch conducted a panel that included professionals from University of California-San Francisco, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, and the American Medical Association, to name a few.
Panel members reviewed practices already implemented as well as existing studies on the subject to come up with nine recommendations for developing, using and interpreting the results of patient questionnaires on quality. The best practices they recommend are:
1. Provide a rationale for measuring quality outcomes and for using patient-reported outcome-based performance measures
2. Describe the context of the patient-reported outcome-based performance measures used to the patients
3. Select a measure that is meaningful to patients with adequate psychometric properties
4. Provide evidence of the measure's sensitivity to differences in care
5. Address missing data and risk adjustment
6. Create a framework for implementation
7. Create a framework for interpretation
8. Create a framework for dissemination; and
9. Create a framework for continuous refinement.
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