Capacity-Building for Collecting Patient-Reported Outcomes and Experiences (PRO) Data Across Hospitals

PurposePatient-reported outcomes and experiences (PRO) data are an integral component of health care quality measurement and PROs are now being collected by many healthcare systems. However, hospital organizational capacity-building for the collection and sharing of PROs is a complex process. We sought to identify the factors that facilitated capacity-building for PRO data collection in a nascent quality improvement learning collaborative of 16 hospitals that has the goal of improving the childbirth experience.DescriptionWe used standard qualitative case study methodologies based on a conceptual framework that hypothesizes that adequate organizational incentives and capacities allow successful achievement of project milestones in a collaborative setting. The 4 project milestones considered in this study were: (1) Agreements; (2) System Design; (3) System Development and Operations; and (4) Implementation. To evaluate the success of reaching each milestone, critical incidents were logged and tracked to determine the capacities and incentives needed to resolve them.AssessmentThe pace of the implementation of PRO data collection through the 4 milestones was uneven across hospitals and largely dependent on limited hospital capacities in the following 8 dimensions: (1) Incentives; (2) Leadership; (3) Policies; (4) Operating systems; (5) Information technology; (6) Legal aspects; (7) Cross-hospital collaboration; and (8) Patient engagement. From this case study, a trajectory for capacity-building in each dimension is discussed.ConclusionThe implementation of PRO data collection in a quality improvement learning collaborative was dependent on multiple organizational capacities for the achievement of project milestones. SignificancePatient-Reported Outcomes (PRO) are measures of a patient's health status. PROs are self-reported and do not require interpretation by the provider. PROs are being collected by many healthcare systems as a patient-centered approach to measuring and reporting healthcare quality. This case study outlines the critical issues involved in collecting PRO data and identifies the factors that facilitate capacity-building for PRO data collection. It provides an example of how the PRO data could be applied to improve patient satisfaction with the childbirth hospital experience.