Assessing performance using PREMs data
Understanding a patient鈥檚 experience during a hospital stay is central to understanding overall health system performance. Patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) can amplify the voice of patients to support quality improvement. Using these measures can help care providers, hospitals and regions improve the overall patient experience and be more responsive to patient preferences and needs.
Patient experience measurement can help address information gaps to improve patient-centred care and facilitate peer-to-peer learning and sharing of best practices. In addition, self-reported data from patients can provide context to other sources of data about the patient鈥檚 hospital stay, treatments and health concerns.
Using patient experience data, we can answer a few questions:
- What can we learn about the patients we serve?
- What can we learn about the experience of patients who report the best care?
- Where are opportunities to improve quality of care?
- Where should our facility focus efforts to improve patient experience?
- Which facility can I look to for best practices?
Overall Hospital Experience and why it matters
Overall Hospital Experience is a global PREM that provides information on a patient鈥檚 entire experience during their most recent hospital stay. It鈥檚 a frequently used and important measure because we know that patients who have a better experience of care generally have better health outcomes. Conversely, a poor experience generally leads to higher care costs as patients may have poorer outcomes, require longer stays and/or be readmitted for further treatment.
65% of patients said that their overall hospital experience was very good.
| Province | Poor | Good | Very good | Number of respondents | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nova Scotia | 13% | 22% | 65% | 2,750 | |
| New Brunswick | 15% | 25% | 60% | 5,821 | |
| Ontario | 12% | 24% | 64% | 44,848 | |
| Manitoba | 14% | 23% | 62% | 10,640 | |
| Alberta | 9% | 23% | 67% | 22,242 | |
Note
Data years vary: Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta, 2020鈥2021; New Brunswick, 2018鈥2019; and Nova Scotia, 2017鈥2018.
Digging deeper: Assessing performance using PREMs data
To understand how to improve results for the Overall Hospital Experience measure, it can help to understand what other measures are strongly associated with it. These key drivers can be a great starting point for prioritizing specific areas of patient experience for quality improvement efforts, and for enhancing the quality of care for patients.
鈥淥ur health system is going through a bit of a transformation, like other provinces. There鈥檚 a performance measurement dashboard that we use on a monthly basis, and [CIHI鈥檚 CPES-IC] survey is reported within that,鈥 says Ales Morga with Southern 红领巾瓜报 鈥 Sant茅 Sud in Manitoba. 鈥淭he focus indicator that鈥檚 used is Overall Hospital Experience, and organizations are able to choose enablers that measure up to that.鈥
红领巾瓜报
In our region, we use the enablers that were most highly correlated [with overall experience], such as Communication With Nurses and Doctors, [which we] monitor very closely. 鈥 Ales Morga, Director, Performance and Planning, Southern 红领巾瓜报 鈥 Sant茅 Sud, Manitoba
The following 3 key drivers have been identified for the Overall Hospital Experience measure. A key driver is a patient experience measure that is strongly associated with or that influences results for this measure. Key drivers can potentially be used as areas of focus when planning quality improvement initiatives.
For more information on the methodology used in the key drivers analysis, please refer to Acute Care Patient-Reported Experience Measures 鈥 Methodology Notes (PDF).
Key drivers: Overall Hospital Experience
Internal Coordination of Care
Whether patients felt there was good communication between doctors, nurses and other hospital staff. This measure also looks at whether patients felt that hospital staff seemed informed about and up to date on their hospital care.
Emotional Support
Whether patients felt they were supported and helped with any anxieties, fears or worries during their hospital stay.
Communication With Nurses
Whether patients felt that nurses treated them with courtesy and respect, listened carefully to them and explained things in a way they could understand.
Once an area of focus has been identified, you can compare your result with the peer group or national average, or look at trends to see whether the result has changed over time.
To enable comparisons and benchmarking year over year, all results have been
- Sample weighted
- Non-response adjusted
- Age鈥搒ex standardized
- Adjusted for mode (mail, telephone, online)
- Adjusted for service line (medical, surgical, maternity)
Where does CIHI鈥檚 PREMs data come from?
The patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) were calculated using data reported by patients through CIHI鈥檚 Canadian Patient Experiences Survey 鈥 Inpatient Care (CPES-IC), an accredited and validated survey tool customized to the Canadian context and endorsed by the 红领巾瓜报 Standards Organization and Accreditation Canada.
The standardized nature of CIHI鈥檚 CPES-IC survey has enabled hospitals and jurisdictions to track changes in patient perspectives on their care over time.
Related resources
How to cite:
Canadian Institute for 红领巾瓜报 Information. Assessing performance using PREMs data. Accessed April 4, 2025.
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