Implementation of Automated PREM Process to Better Capture Patients' Overall Experience of Care Services at Karolinska University Hospital.

Abstract

To improve healthcare quality there has been a growing interest in collecting and analysing patient feedback. Patient Reported Experience Measures (PREMs) are instruments through which the feedback can be collected and used for improvement purposes. However, the collection process is often associated with an administrative burden for healthcare professionals who collect and register surveys manually. Additionally, the manual procedure limits the data collection efforts to fewer patients, thus resulting in a less representative sample. A digital and automated procedure for collecting and visualising patient experience data can relieve healthcare staff and allow more patients to share their experiences. At Karolinska University Hospital, a multi-disciplinary project to develop the automated PREM process-from data collection to visualisation-has been undertaken. As a result, there are about 25,000 digital questionnaires distributed per month with the response rate of approximately 35%-40%. This is an equivalent of about 9000 completed questionnaires per month to be compared to less than 1000 responses per month received during the manual process used before 2021. The large amount of patient experience data is analysed and made accessible to the hospital management and staff. To increase the transparency, part of the collected data is visualised at Karolinska's external website. Furthermore, hospital staff is relieved from all survey administration. Remaining challenges concern survey language and the analysis of textual responses that are not yet done at hospital level. Overall, this initiative has led to several quality improvement activities and contributed to strengthening Karolinska's internal learning health system.