NIVEL, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, P,O, Box 1568, 3500 BN Utrecht, The Netherlands.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2011 Nov 3;11:299. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-11-299.
Patients are increasingly expected to become active, critical consumers in healthcare. They can use comparative healthcare information presented on websites to make informed choices for healthcare providers. However, the use of this information has been limited so far. An obstacle can be that the information is not perceived as relevant by patients. Presenting only the most important quality indicators might improve the usefulness of this information. The aim of this study was to explore which quality indicators different subgroups of patients find important when choosing a hospital for total hip arthroplasty (THA) or total knee arthroplasty (TKA).
In this explorative, cross-sectional study, questionnaires were distributed to 265 patients who underwent or had to undergo THA/TKA. Participants were asked to rank the importance of three types of quality indicators: patient experience indicators, clinical performance indicators, and indicators about hospital services. We used random effects regression analyses to assess the relative importance of the indicators in different subgroups of patients.
110 patients (response rate 41.5%) who underwent or had to undergo THA/TKA participated. Conduct of doctors, the presence of procedures to prevent adverse effects of thrombosis and information about the specialist area of orthopaedists were the most important patient experience indicator, clinical performance indicator and indicator about hospital services, respectively. We found a few differences between patient subgroups in the importance attached to the quality indicators.
This study provides a first insight into which quality indicators patients find important when choosing a hospital for THA/TKA, and shows that subgroups of patients differ in the value they attach to these indicators. More extended research is needed to establish the indicators that should at least be presented in succinct overviews of comparative healthcare information for patients choosing a hospital for THA/TKA.
患者在医疗保健中越来越被期望成为积极、有批判性的消费者。他们可以利用网站上提供的比较医疗保健信息，为医疗服务提供者做出明智的选择。然而，到目前为止，这种信息的使用还很有限。一个障碍可能是，患者认为这些信息不相关。仅呈现最重要的质量指标可能会提高这些信息的有用性。本研究的目的是探讨不同亚组的患者在选择进行全髋关节置换术（THA）或全膝关节置换术（TKA）的医院时，认为哪些质量指标重要。
在这项探索性、横断面研究中，向 265 名接受或需要接受 THA/TKA 的患者发放了问卷。参与者被要求对三种类型的质量指标的重要性进行排序：患者体验指标、临床绩效指标和医院服务指标。我们使用随机效应回归分析来评估不同患者亚组中指标的相对重要性。
110 名（应答率 41.5%）接受或需要接受 THA/TKA 的患者参与了研究。医生的行为、预防血栓形成不良影响的程序的存在以及关于矫形外科医生专业领域的信息分别是患者体验指标、临床绩效指标和医院服务指标中最重要的指标。我们发现，在对质量指标的重视程度上，患者亚组之间存在一些差异。
本研究首次深入了解了患者在选择进行 THA/TKA 的医院时认为哪些质量指标重要，并表明患者亚组在对这些指标的重视程度上存在差异。需要进一步开展更广泛的研究，以确定至少应在患者选择 THA/TKA 医院的比较医疗保健信息简明概述中呈现的指标。
