Shortening a Patient Experiences Survey for Medical Homes.

Judy Ng,Tyler Oberlander,Erika Henry,Peichang Shi,Sarah Scholle

doi:10.3390/healthcare4010001

Judy Ng, Tyler Oberlander + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare4010001

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Abstract

The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems—Patient-Centered Medical Home (CAHPS PCMH) Survey assesses patient experiences reflecting domains of care related to general patient experience (access to care, communication with providers, office staff interaction, provider rating) and PCMH-specific aspects of patient care (comprehensiveness of care, self-management support, shared decision making). The current work compares psychometric properties of the current survey and a proposed shortened version of the survey (from 52 to 26 adult survey items, from 66 to 31 child survey items). The revisions were based on initial psychometric analysis and stakeholder input regarding survey length concerns. A total of 268 practices voluntarily submitted adult surveys and 58 submitted child survey data to the National Committee for Quality Assurance in 2013. Mean unadjusted scores, practice-level item and composite reliability, and item-to-scale correlations were calculated. Results show that the shorter adult survey has lower reliability, but still it still meets general definitions of a sound survey for the adult version, and resulted in few changes to mean scores. The impact was more problematic for the pediatric version. Further testing is needed to investigate approaches to improving survey response and the relevance of survey items in informing quality improvement.

Highlights

The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) care model is gaining prominence as a way of improving primary care
The adoption of PCMH functions have been encouraged under the Affordable Care Act, and multiple payers have provided financial incentives for practices to become medical homes [2,3]
Collaborated with the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPSr, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD, USA) Consortium, overseen by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), to develop a survey instrument functionally aligned with key PCMH functions

Summary

Introduction

The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) care model is gaining prominence as a way of improving primary care. With Commonwealth Fund support, NCQA collaborated with the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPSr , Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD, USA) Consortium, overseen by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), to develop a survey instrument functionally aligned with key PCMH functions. This instrument, the CAHPS PCMH, finalized in late 2011, evaluates patient experiences on key domains of care associated with the medical home [5], and has since been used in a variety of settings, including National Committee for Quality Assurance’s (NCQA) PCMH

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