Patient Reported Experience Measures or PREMs measure a person’s experience of healthcare, and serve as a valuable tool for understanding patient satisfaction. They are also a key tool in supporting service improvement projects. In 2013, a set of core PREMs was developed in Wales to standardise data collection, which was later updated in 2017, resulting in a set of 11 questions.
In order to make sure that the core set of PREMs remains relevant to current service provision and healthcare services, Welsh Government commissioned CEDAR to conduct a ‘refresh’ of the core PREM. This consisteds of a number of phases:
During phase one, key stakeholders from across Wales were identified by Welsh Government, and invited by CEDAR to participate. Focus groups and interviews were conducted remotely with thirty three people, including service users, representatives from advocacy groups and patient experience team members from across Wales.
Detailed discussions were held on existing questions, with proposed changes to the survey introduction, question order and wording. There were also several suggestions for additions to the PREM, such as making the questionnaire more inclusive to various languages, including British Sign Language.
Phase one of the refresh aims to:
View the interim PREMs refresh report detailing Phase one here.
Phase two involved testing the draft PREM in a number of online surveys. Over 110 organisations and 300 individuals were contacted to invite them to participate, with over three hundred and sixty responses received from across Wales. Responses aimed to test the completion rates, validity, reliability and consistency of the draft questions. The analysis resulted in a final set of nine multiple choice questions and two free text questions in total to create the People Experience Survey (PES).
Phase three consisted of Welsh translation and validation of the PES using internationally recognised principles of best practice.
This project has resulted in a bilingual validated tool suitable for use across NHS Wales. The project was recently recognised by Health and Care Research Wales, winning the 2024 Public Involvement Award.