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About CIHI’s patient experiences survey

What is the Canadian Patient Experiences Survey — Inpatient Care (CPES-IC)?

See CIHI’s web page about the patient experiences survey.

How can I learn more about CIHI’s CPES-IC and patient-reported experience measures?

See CIHI’s web page about the patient experiences survey.
If you have questions about CIHI’s CPES-IC, data quality or public reporting, please email help@cihi.ca.

Are patient experience results and data still available for data collected before March 2024?

Researchers, decision-makers and health managers can request specific data from CPERS though CIHI’s Data Request Program. Complete our initial Data Inquiry Form to begin. We will then send you the formal Data Request Form to collect more information. 

Survey administration

Where can I find information about how to administer the CPES-IC?

Please refer to the CPES-IC Procedure Manual (PDF) for information about best practices for survey administration. 

Patient participation

How is my information being protected?

ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨ceased operating the Canadian Patient Experiences Reporting System (CPERS) in March 2024; following this date, data was no longer submitted to CIHI. However, ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨continues to make the CPES-IC tool available and encourages its use for quality improvement.  

If you completed the survey prior to March 2024, the organization that gave it to you may have sent your answers to the Canadian Institute for ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨ Information (CIHI). Answers received by ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨are stored in the Canadian Patient Experiences Reporting System (CPERS), one of our databases. Information is used in a way that obeys our Privacy Policy, 2010. This document sets out our rules for how we treat personal health information. Our Privacy and Security Program meets the highest standards for keeping health information safe and confidential. 

How are my survey answers used?

Your answers tell organizations about your experiences in the hospital. Service providers, hospital decision-makers, researchers and funders will use your answers — along with answers from other patients and additional information — to assess how well the health system is performing, and to improve patient-centred care and patient outcomes in Canada.

How can I learn more about how ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨is working with patients?

We want to reflect patient voices in our work, so we’re including patients in more and more of our projects. When patients share their expertise, their advice and their journey with us, they give us unique insights that help us to understand our data. Patients’ experiences help to explain our findings, and they make sure that our work is relevant to decision-makers throughout the health care system. 

To learn more, visit CIHI’s Working with patients and families page or email patientengagement@cihi.ca.

Survey development and methodology

What factors were considered when developing the Canadian Patient Experiences Survey — Inpatient Care (CPES-IC)?

CIHI, in partnership with stakeholders, sought to develop the first pan-Canadian patient experiences survey for inpatient care. The goal was to provide a national survey standard for comparative patient experience measures to facilitate benchmarking for quality improvement. 

ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨worked with the Inter-Jurisdictional Patient-Centred Measurement Advisory Group (IJG) and other national experts to review the Hospital Consumer Assessment of ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨care Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey, a standard American patient experience survey, and identify additional questions to include in the CPES-IC.

ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨used a multi-step process to select new questions. First, ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨and the IJG decided on important areas (domains) that were not covered in the HCAHPS questionnaire. This was done by reviewing existing patient experience survey questions used in Canada, the scientific literature and available survey data. Next, we conducted an extensive review of existing questionnaires used around the world related to those areas/domains and identified related questions. Experts from across the country reviewed existing questions and drafted new questions related to key themes in the domains. Subsequently, the new questions were reviewed with patients and then cognitively tested (May 2013) and pilot tested (September 2013) in both English and French to ensure that they are appropriate and understandable.

Learn more .

Has the CPES-IC been validated?

The CPES-IC has been validated and is endorsed by the ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨ Standards Organization and Accreditation Canada for patient experience surveying. ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨validated the survey questions and measures using data from our Canadian Patient Experiences Reporting System (CPERS) database. 2 sources of evidence were used to establish validity: the internal structure of the survey, and the relationships between different types of measures of patient experience from the survey. From this validation work, the CPES-IC dimensions had good overall fit at the patient level. Prior to validation, we also conducted pilot testing and cognitive testing of the survey; additional details about the development of the CPES-IC can be found in this paper .

Why are survey results adjusted for mode and service line?

The CPES-IC is completed in 3 modes: mail, online and telephone. The mode of survey completion may impact results by influencing the composition of respondents and the way respondents answer questions. Furthermore, the impact of mode of survey completion on CPES-IC results differs by the type of service a patient has received. Therefore, to account for the influence of these factors, ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨has quantified the impact of mode and service line on CPES-IC question responses and developed mode and service line adjustments (XLSX) for the CPES-IC survey.

Where can I find methodology information for the patient-reported experience measures (PREMs)?

Technical details (e.g., measure definitions, methodologies) can be found on CIHI’s Patient experience web page. Additional details on CPES-IC methodology are described in the PREMs methodology notes (PDF).

For more information on the mode and service line adjustment values that are applied to the PREMs, see CPES-IC Mode and Service Line Adjustments — Data Tables (XLSX).