How did we do? An investigation into the suitability of patient questionnaires (PREMs and PROMs) in three primary care oral surgery practices.

Abstract

Introduction With the expansion of oral surgery services into the primary care sector there is a need to monitor the quality of the care provided. The Guide for Commissioning Oral Surgery and Oral Medicine proposed a set of questions to be used as patient related experience and outcome measures (PREMs and PROMs).Aim The British Association of Oral Surgeons (BAOS) primary care group (which includes the authors) were tasked by the Chief Dental Officer for England to test the suitability of these PREMs and PROMs.Method The questions as published in the commissioning guide were piloted in primary care oral surgery practices and patient feedback was sought. The authors then proposed and implemented an amended series of questions that they felt would be more practical as generic templates for oral surgery services.Results Our data demonstrates that the revised questions have produced data that is easy to interpret and attracted a greater number of feedback comments from patients.Discussion and conclusion The revised questionnaires incorporate the NHS Friends and Family Test as the collection of this data is normally a contractual requirement for providers of NHS services. They also use questions from other validated healthcare satisfaction survey tools. The use of Likert scales provides a richer data set which makes the interpretation of data easier and highlights areas for improvement. It is important to note that the data provided by PREMs and PROMs is subject to a number of biases and should be used for local quality improvement and longitudinal analysis of outcome data rather than comparison between providers.