Development and pilot of a burns-specific patient-reported experience measure

Abstract

Patient –reported experience measures (PREMs) are a valuable tool in assessing patient’s subjective experiences within healthcare settings. They assist the evaluation and development of clinical services, and could be considered most useful when they assess elements of care pertinent to the specific health condition or clinical service. Currently there is no existing PREM to assess this in an NHS burns service. In the current project, a burns-specific PREM was created by identifying pre-existing condition specific PREMs in the literature and selecting key items pertinent to burn care for use in a brief questionnaire tool adapted in multiple versions to patient age and care setting. The measure was reviewed by the burns multidisciplinary team and piloted with patients attending the service. Twenty-seven participants completed the measure alongside an evaluation tool briefly assessing clarity, relevance and acceptability. While small, this pilot suggested that patients found the measure acceptable to complete and relevant to their care. It also yielded information not currently assessed by the service in any other format, appearing to promise utility for service development activities. Further work is needed to validate the tool and determine how its use could be implemented at a local and national level.