Feasibility of using emergency department patient experience surveys as a proxy for equity of care

Abstract

Collecting and examining equity data can help inform quality improvement initiatives but is a relatively new practice in health care. The overall goal of this study was to assess different methods a feasible starting point in measuring equity in an urban Emergency Department (ED) that serves a diverse patient population. Socio-demographic characteristics of patients visiting an ED were compared with tho responded to provincial patient experience surveys routinely administered by mail. Patient experience survey data were collected over an 11-week period in an urban ED using different survey administration methods (face vs. handout) among study participants from vulnerable populations (elderly, low income, homeless, and mental health or substance use issues). Patient populations receiving care in the ED were shown to be different from those who responded to routinely mailed patient experience surveys with elderly patients over income, mental health or substance use and homeless/unstable housing populations under responses. From a total of 111 study participants, the r for surveys that were handed out (p = 0.002), but no significant difference in the percentage of positive responses was evident. Delivering patient experience surveys immediately upon discharge is an effective way of capturing uni responses from patients in vulnerable populations, supporting a valuable means administration method poses important implications when used to inform quality improvement efforts and performance measurement.