Objective Evidence of the patient experience of hospitalization is an essential component of health policy and service improvement but studies often lack a representative population sample or do not examine… Click to show full abstract
Objective Evidence of the patient experience of hospitalization is an essential component of health policy and service improvement but studies often lack a representative population sample or do not examine the influence of patient and hospital characteristics on experiences. We address these gaps by investigating the experiences of a large cohort of recently hospitalized patients aged 45 years and over in New South Wales (NSW), Australia who were identified using data linkage. Design Cross-sectional survey. Setting Hospitals in NSW, Australia. Participants The Picker Patient Experience Survey (PPE-15) was administered to a random sample of 20 000 patients hospitalized between January and June 2014. Main outcome measure Multivariable negative binomial regression was used to investigate factors associated with a higher PPE-15 score. Results There was a 40% response rate (7661 completed surveys received). Respondents often reported a positive experience of being treated with dignity and respect, yet almost 40% wanted to be more involved in decisions about their care. Some respondents identified other problematic aspects of care such as receiving conflicting information from different care providers (18%) and feeling that doctors spoke in front of them as if they were not there (14%). Having an unplanned admission or having an adverse event were both very strongly associated with a poorer patient experience (P < 0.001). No other factors were found to be associated. Conclusions Patient involvement in decision-making about care was highlighted as an important area for improvement. Further work is needed to address the challenges experienced by patients, carers and health professionals in achieving a genuine partnership model.
               
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