Journal of health services research & policy
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J Health Serv Res Policy · Apr 2003
Comparative StudyFactors relating to patients' reports about hospital care for coronary heart disease in England.
All health care providers in England are required to conduct surveys of their patients' experience of health care. Data from such surveys contribute to the 'star rating' performance indicators. However, there are concerns that these subjective measures may be influenced more by characteristics of patients than by true variations in the quality of care. The purpose of this paper is threefold: to determine the relationship between demographic characteristics and an index measure of patients' reported experience; to explore the extent to which patients' experiences may be accounted for by the particular National Health Service (NHS) trust they attended; and to assess how meaningful a summary index is in terms of its ability to discriminate between providers. ⋯ Demographic characteristics do not appear to account for differences between hospital trusts in patients' experience of health care. However, there is considerable variation in patients' experience within each provider. This would suggest that summary indices of patients' experience should not be used to rank providers, although detailed information from patient surveys have a useful role in determining priorities for quality improvement within individual hospitals and for assessing changes over time.