Are patients with communication difficulties included in qualitative research on patient experience?

What is it about?

Qualitative research studies provide evidence of what matters to people when they are patients in hospital. These studies are used to develop patient experience surveys to measure patient experience. We examined the 39 qualitative research studies used to inform the development of the new Australian Hospital Patient Experience Question Set (AHPEQS). We wanted to determine if the perspectives of patients with communication difficulties were included in these 39 qualitative research studies.

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Why is it important?

Patients with communication difficulties are three times more likely to experience a preventable adverse event in hospital and they are significantly less satisfied with their healthcare. That is, patients with communication difficulties are more likely to have a poor patient experience in hospital compared to patients who do not have a communication difficulties. To improve the patient experience of people with communication difficulties, it is important that patient experience surveys measure what is important to them. We found that the reporting of qualitative research on patient experience was poor and it was often difficult to determine if patients with communication difficulties were included in the research. We also found that when researchers did report on patients with communication difficulty in their studies, it was often to exclude these patients. Only 4 of the 39 qualitative research studies described what is important to patients with communication difficulties. It is likely that what matters to them is not included in the AHPEQS.

Perspectives