Improving the quality of patient experience information available to rehabilitation services is the focus of a new UOW research project awarded $83,000 in funding.
A team from the Australian Health Services Research Institute led by Frances Simmonds will investigate the potential for a patient experience survey targeted specifically at rehabilitation patients. The project will be conducted in collaboration with researchers from the University of Sydney.
In the rehabilitation setting, patient experience and adherence to treatment and medication regimes is positively associated with more favourable outcomes for health. However there is currently no nationally consistent, or specific, survey used to capture the experience of rehabilitation patients.
The project will evaluate a rehabilitation specific patient experience survey, which aims to provide rehabilitation providers with enhanced feedback about the quality of their services and offer further avenues for service improvement, future planning and ultimately, patient outcomes, says Project Manager, Jacquelin Capell.
“A well-designed rehabilitation specific patient experience survey has the potential to provide rehabilitation services with an important additional avenue for exploring the rehabilitation outcomes achieved by patients participating in medical rehabilitation and identifying potential areas for improvement in the quality of services provided,” Ms Capell says. “This is particularly important as demand for rehabilitation services in Australia increases in line with an ageing population, socio-economic changes and medical advances that result in improved recovery rates form acute illness and trauma.”
The project is one of eight to be funded by the 2015 Medibank Health Research Fund grant round, announced in March. For more information: jcapell@uow.edu.au