Test-retest stability of patient experience items derived from the national GP patient survey.

Antoinette F Davey,Luke Mounce,Martin J Roberts,Inocencio Maramba,John L Campbell

doi:10.1186/s40064-016-3377-9

Abstract

PurposeThe validity and reliability of various items on the GP Patient Survey (GPPS) survey have been reported, however stability of patient responses over time has not been tested. The purpose of this study was to determine the test–retest reliability of the core items from the GPPS.MethodsPatients who had recently consulted participating GPs in five general practices across the South West England were sent a postal questionnaire comprising of 54 items concerning their experience of their consultation and the care they received from the GP practice. Patients returning the questionnaire within 3 weeks of mail-out were sent a second identical (retest) questionnaire. Stability of responses was assessed by raw agreement rates and Cohen’s kappa (for categorical response items) and intraclass correlation coefficients and means (for ordinal response items).Results348 of 597 Patients returned a retest questionnaire (58.3 % response rate). In comparison to the test phase, patients responding to the retest phase were older and more likely to have white British ethnicity. Raw agreement rates for the 33 categorical items ranged from 66 to 100 % (mean 88 %) while the kappa coefficients ranged from 0.00 to 1.00 (mean 0.53). Intraclass correlation coefficients for the 21 ordinal items averaged 0.67 (range 0.44–0.77).ConclusionsFormal testing of items from the national GP patient survey examining patient experience in primary care highlighted their acceptable temporal stability several weeks following a GP consultation.

Highlights

Patient surveys have been adopted widely, both in the UK and elsewhere, as a means of capturing patients’ experience of care delivered in primary and secondary care settings
A recent study exploring the views of primary care staff around the utility of patient experience surveys highlighted concerns regarding the perceived weakness of survey methods, the robustness of local surveys, and the rigidity of survey
The English GP Patient Survey (GPPS) is a large-scale survey of patient experience of primary care routinely reported at the level of data aggregated by practice

Summary

Introduction

Patient surveys have been adopted widely, both in the UK and elsewhere, as a means of capturing patients’ experience of care delivered in primary and secondary care settings. Information obtained through such surveys offers the potential to inform service development and continuous quality improvement. Offering such potential, previous research has identified concerns raised by doctors and others concerning the reliability and credibility of survey results (Asprey et al 2013).

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