Listening to the patient voice can improve care for patients undergoing heart surgery
22 August 2019
Patient-reported experiences have potential for driving improvements in the quality of hospital care, according to a new study published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology. The findings were the result of analysing Canadian Patient Experience Survey responses obtained from cardiac patients in Alberta. This revealed areas that are highly rated by patients but also reported findings about areas that could be improved.
Although the concept of patient-centricity is gaining traction, there is currently limited evidence on the outcomes of patient-centric care. This study aimed to address this gap in the literature by using records from the Canadian Patient Experiences Survey called Inpatient Care (CPES-IC). The experiences of over 1,000 patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) and/or valve replacement from April 2014 to March 2018 were included in the research.
Patients indicated a strong preference for discussing help needed after discharge (96.6%) and receiving written discharge information (93.3%). On the other hand, less than 40% of respondents reported that the space around their room was always quiet at night and 45% indicated that hospital staff had always described the potential side effects of any new medications that patients were given.
“To our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind in Canada - one that uses linkage of patient experience surveys with routinely-collected administrative data to examine the comprehensive hospital experience of a particular clinical group,” explained lead investigator Kyle A. Kemp, a PhD candidate working in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. “Examining the comprehensive experience of patients who have undergone cardiac procedures such as CABG and valve replacement may provide tremendous value, given the labour-intensive and costly nature of these procedures.”
