Motivators and Barriers to Using Patient Experience Reports for Performance Improvement

Abstract

Increasingly, patient experience surveys are available to provide performance feedback to physician groups. However, limited published literature addresses factors influencing use of these reports for performance improvement. To address this gap, we conducted semistructured interviews with leaders of Massachusetts physician groups. We asked about factors influencing groups' use of performance data and report characteristics. Motivating characteristics included having group leaders who emphasized a positive patient experience and prioritized patient retention; public reporting was not an important motivator for most groups. Full physician panels were perceived as a barrier to use of reports. Performance reports from a statewide public reporting collaborative were not sufficient for the majority of groups, with many seeking external reports. As policy makers create financial incentives to support performance improvement, assisting leaders to articulate the professional case for patient experience and enhancing the content and timing of performance reports may be important.

Functionality and feedback: a realist synthesis of the collation, interpretation and utilisation of patient-reported outcome measures data to improve patient care

“…Geissler et al, 2013 234 Incentives for improvement activities were the retention of patients or attracting new patients (this is clearly where there is a choice to be made). A barrier to completing the MHQP was the lack of (other) incentives.…”

“…To test their model, Geissler et al 234 conducted 30-minute semistructured interviews with a sample of doctor groups in Massachusetts. The sampling frame was the 2007 MHQP state-wide doctor directory, with at least three doctors providing care to members of at least one of the five largest commercial health plans in Massachusetts, resulting in 117 doctor groups who were invited to participate.…”

“…234 The timeliness of the data was also mentioned as important, with data provided on a frequent basis being seen as supporting efforts to improve care, and those with a large time-lag between data collecting and analysis being seen as less useful, as the following quotations from respondents illustrate:…”

Taking Patients’ Narratives about Clinicians from Anecdote to Science

“…Americans who have encountered comment-oriented websites before choosing a physician report that these are among the most influential sources of information. 9,15 Patient narratives offer the necessary detail. Virtually all pay-for-performance systems base incentives, in part, on patients' survey ratings.…”

“…Millions of dollars have been invested in the collection of standardized, quantitative measures of patient experience and in reporting them with the use of colorful icons that highlight the best and worst performers. 9 The proliferation of patient comments about clinical encounters, described in their own words, was greeted skeptically by some clinicians, who worried that they were little more than a litany of grievances. [1][2][3][4] By contrast, websites like Yelp and Angie's List, which present volunteered comments about service providers, including clinicians, have burgeoned over the past 5 years.…”