The latest Improvement Science and Research Methods Seminar was given online via Teams on 15 July 2021 by Dr Fiona Togher on the topic of ‘The development of a Patient Reported Experience Measure for use in NHS Ambulance Services.’ Fiona started her career at NHS Lincolnshire in 2008 as a Research Assistant, moving to CaHRU in 2010 where she worked for six years until completing her PhD studentship. She moved to the Care Quality Commission in 2016, first as a Senior Analyst within the Qualitative Intelligence function and currently as an Analyst Team Leader. During the Covid-19 pandemic she has led a team of analysts exploring how health and social care systems (Integrated Care Systems and Sustainability Transformation Partnerships) have collaborated to maintain high quality services during this unprecedented time. Her main research interest focuses on patient experiences of healthcare.
Patients’ experiences of their healthcare are a key area for monitoring, measurement and improvement in healthcare policy. NHS England acknowledge that measuring the quality of patients’ experiences of health care services should 
be a core expectation. As such patients are often invited to comment on their healthcare experiences using a number of platforms, for example: patient stories, Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) panels, sharing experiences via online media such as the NHS and Care Quality Commission (CQC) websites. These methods do not enable the views of large numbers of patients to be represented in a standardised format. One way in which this can be achieved is through the use of a tool called a Patient Reported Experience Measure (PREM). These are questionnaires that patients are asked to complete to share their recollection of the experience they had during an interaction with a particular healthcare service. The NHS survey programme, in conjunction with the Care Quality Commission, is responsible for the systematic collection of patient experience survey data. In relation to care provided by NHS ambulance services, there is no standardised measure used that incorporates all the stages of ambulance service care; from the 999-emergency call to the transfer of care between pre-hospital and acute services. This doctoral work explored the potential for designing a new and innovative measure of patient experience that could be used across NHS ambulance service trusts. During this seminar we will talk about the adapted patient-centred care conceptual framework that underpinned and guided this work as well as the various research methods that were employed.
The seminar defined Patient Reported Experience Measures (PREMS), explained the health policy supporting the 
need for them, the conceptual framework and detailed research Methods which led to the development of the Ambulance PREM (A-PREM). The methods described included a sopcing review, with interviews as part of the review. secondary qualitative data analysis, questionnaire appraisal and congnitive interviews. The different approaches (‘think aloud’ and ‘probes’) to cognitive interviews were explained. finally the seminar described the pilot of the A-PREM and what this showed in terms of validity and reliabibility of the instrument. Finally there was plenty of time for questions on the methods and their application from those attending and the seminar was well received by all present. The seminar slides are shown below and a recording of the seminar can be seen below.
If you would like to attend this or future seminars please contact Sue Bowler (sbowler@lincoln.ac.uk), Research Administrator at CaHRU.
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