Research Proposal for Patient Satisfaction Survey

Research Proposal for persevering contentment pileIntroductionBackground of the disciplineI am working for mean(a) C ar proceedss. My team has been collecting long-sufferings view of the operate they received from our team, through the occasion of patient expiation reexamine soma since 2005. My intention is to find push through if we atomic number 18 providing satis concomitantory return to our customer by analyzing the entropy collected with the forms. Measuring patient gladness is big because satisfaction of customers with health attention assistant that they received has been linked to their meekness and their wiliness to seek medical advice by W ar et al (1983). Satisfaction is a complex pattern and its shaped by heterogeneous factors which includes life style, past see to it, future expectations, individual and societal values (Carr-Hill 1992).As an intermediate c atomic number 18 run provider, my team works within the segment of Health National S ervice Framework (Department of Health, 2001). Intermediate cargon operate were defecateed with the mandate to maximize peoples physical functioning, pass on their confidence and to re-equip them with necessary skills to live safely and independently at home, as thoroughly as provision of ongoing support. The part of health recommended the use of multidisciplinary single assessment process in national renovation systema skeletalework for the older people. Using the single assessment process for patients attention the team to work together because it makes communication easy and it prevents duplication of each new(prenominal)s assessment and plan. Therefore the process of rehabilitation begins with comprehensive multidisciplinary assessment apply single assessment process (DH, 2001). The process of rehabilitation includes identifying worrys and indispensabilitys, relating problems to limiting factors, delimitate target problems, selecting take over handbills, fol measl y by planning, implementing and coordination of noise, and fin aloney reviewing effects of interpolation (Davis 2006). Our team comprises of Physi otherapists, occupational therapist, Social worker, and Therapy Technicians in cor doing office.Intermediate c ar serve were mandated to provide person-centre and holistic care to the older people and their carers, respecting them as Individuals and that they should be enabled to make survival of the fittest round their own care (DH 2001). The department of health introduced these guidelines so that role and improved services heap be provided to service users. If the guidelines are followed, satisfactory services are standardizedly to be provided to the thickenings. How can we know that we are hobby these guidelines? Although as a team, our operable guideline revolves round delivering the services in line with department of healths guideline, however an objective assessment of the service impart extend us the clear picture of how pricy the services that we are providing is. non only that, it volition overly dish bulge us to identify the areas that we lease to improve on. Service users level of satisfaction with the service that we are rendering whitethorn be used as a yard stick in measuring our performance. This can be in the form of patient satisfaction survey. A patient satisfaction survey can be a rich etymon of info for sustained feeling improvement (Lin and Kelly 1995). Further much a number of enquiryers tolerate linked patient satisfaction to patients clinical egresscomes. OHolleran et al (2005), George and Hirsh (2005), and Hurwitz and Morgenstern (2005) inform that clinical outcome is a predictor of patient satisfaction. It leave alone and so be useful to check over if we are providing satisfactory services to our lymph gland and if the findings indicate otherwise in several(prenominal) aspects, recommendations allow be make to improve our services in those areas. I ge t out therefore investigate our performance from the service users perspective by analyzing the selective information that we have been collating with the patient satisfaction survey forms.1.2 Research questionsThere are rough questions that needed to be answered to be able to determine if our service is satisfactory to our clients or non. Therefore the purpose of this body of work is to find out the answers to these questionsi. Are we providing satisfactory service to our client?ii. Are we providing quality services to the client?iii. Are we meeting the necessitate of the patients?iv. Are we providing client revolve around services?v. Are we respecting the service users?vi. Are we providing information about how the service users can make complains?vii. Are we giving information about other service open to our service users?viii. What are the users feeling about the service?ix. Do we need to amend the way we are providing the service?Aims/ objectives of the studyTo answer the questions above, the questionnaire needs to be able to collect information from our client on how they feel about the services they get from our facility. Therefore, the objectives of the study are todetermine whether we are providing satisfactory services to our clientsdetermine whether we are providing quality services to our service usersfind out if we are meeting the needs of our clientsestablish whether we are providing client-centered services to our clientsinvestigate whether we are treating our clients with respect take care whether we are providing information about how the service users can complain about our services.clarify whether we giving information about other service available to our service usersexplore what our service users feel about our servicesdetermine whether we need to amend the way we are providing the service1.4 Significance of the study. This study entrust give our team the opportunity to demonstrate whether we are providing quality service or non. I t will also be highlighted whether we are providing client desire outcome or not because outcome determines satisfaction as demonstrated by OHolleran et al (2005).Findings from this study will also form a basis for further explore in the study climb and cor responder studies in health care facilities with similar mandate.1.6 Delimitations of the studyThe study will be delimited to Luton primeval electric charge Trust.Operational definition of termsClient satisfaction A mea true of the extent to which clients expectations of therapeutic intervention are met.Service usersAll clients/ patients registered with Luton elemental Care Trust and who received therapeutic intervention from the team during January 2006 and December 2007. residential district Assessment and Rehabilitation team This comprises of Physiotherapists, Occupational therapist, Social worker, and Therapy Technicians working in the same office in Luton Primary Care Trust.2.0 Literature ReviewMeasuring patient satisf action is Copernican because it pushes towards accountability among health care providers (Guadagnion 2003). OHolleran et al (2005) shed more light on the importance of patient satisfaction survey following their cohort study of patients that underwent rotator cuff surgery, they concluded that there is a kin between patient satisfaction and outcome of the intervention.How do we mea real satisfaction? What are the indicators for patient satisfaction?Satisfaction from consumer perspective is pertinacious by comparison of consumer experience of service received by them and their expectation (Tam 2005). The primary(prenominal) indicators for quality service from patient perspective includes interpersonal skills, accessibility and public convenience of service, respect, technical ability of doctor (care provider in our case) , the physical environment (Baker 2001,Di Paula et al 2002). Satisfaction is determined by the way patients are enured by practitioners and it determined by t echnical and interpersonal elements (Donebedia 1988). The technical aspects were set as to consist of Practitioners knowledge and strategies employed to arrive at appropriate intervention, whereas the interpersonal aspect consist of communication skill, friendliness, kindness, attention, receptiveness, empathy, among other things (Donebedia 1988).Looking at the questionnaire (see appendix 1), it seems to be measuring al near all the identified indicators. (Full appraiser of the questionnaire will be carried out as part of the research)2.1 Theoretical postResearch ParadigmParadigm is defined by Titchhen (1993) as a description of a scientific model within which a familiarity of scientists generate knowledgeThis research will be carried out from incontrovertibleness and phenomenology point of view. This means that the research will be kind of quantative and soft manners.According to Guba (1990), positivism is a belief system that is rooted in realist ontology. This means that Positivism go on is based on the fact that concept must be made observable. Measurability of concept is central to denary research (Devers 1999). yet, Phenomenological approach provides a deep understanding of the phenomenon as experience by several individual Ges puff up (1998). soft research was classified as phenomenological of its theory building, holistic, case-based, subjective and process-oriented nature while On the other hand Quantitative research was classified as Positivism approach because it is deductive, hypothesis driven, particularistic, variable based, objective and outcome oriented (Devers 1999). Reichardt and Cook (1978) proposed that focalization should be send offd on debate to accept twain Qualitative and Quantitative methods instead of Qualitative versus Quantitative debate, because each of them has their strengths and weaknesses, use both approaches will compliment each other by drawing from the strengths and minimise the weakness of both approaches. I will be development mixture of qualitative and duodecimal method in this research. I will tippytoe from the strengths of both them and use the two methods to compliment each other.Methodology3.1 instruction designPersonal querys, mobilize interview, and mailed questionnaires are the most earthy ways of carrying out survey research. Each of the ways has its merits and demerits.Personal interview is a method of collecting information from individual by using face-to-face method, the dept and the quality of information they are capable of yielding makes them the most useful method however they are very costly (Polit and Hungler 1989). In my feel it will be eon consuming, considering the fact that this research has time limit because of the naturalize calendar, it will not be a method of choice for this research.Another way of gathering information is by telephone interview, if the interview is short, specific and too personal, it whitethorn be a good way for collecting a l ot of information quickly and its less costly compare with personal interview however it can be less effective way of gathering information when highly sensitive information is required (Polit and Hungler 1989).Mailed questionnaires will be my choice, I choice this because of it advantages over personal interviews and telephone interview. It differs from others because its egotism administered, the answerer select the question on the form and give an answer in write format, the question is distributed through post, compare to other form of surveys, the cost is low especially when there is large geographical area to be scotch (Polit and Hungler 1989). I choose Mailed questionnaire over other methods because of its advantages over other method. Total anonymity is possible using questionnaire this whitethorn reduce preconceived opinion in the answers of the participants.Study settingThe study will take place in the Community Assessment Rehabilitation Teams office. exemplificati on and Sampling TechniqueAll clients receiving or that had received therapeutic stimulant drug from the community assessment and rehabilitation team from January 2006 to December 2007 and who were willing to move into (by returning a filled questionnaire that was given to them when they received care/ services from the team) will be surveyed.Instrument developmentThe pawn for this study will be client satisfaction survey questionnaire. This had been developed by the steering of the study setting and had being in use in the setting since 2005. The client satisfaction survey consisted of eleven issues. Ten of the eleven issues desire information on clients perception of some issues bothering on services delivered by the community assessment and rehabilitation team, while the eleventh issues asked the study participants to broadly speaking comment freely about their views regarding the services and the team. information gathering social occasionClients satisfaction survey questi onnaire which represented the instrument for this study will be given to everyone that received therapeutic input from the team. The form is eer include with the service users discharge summaries. To encourage replying, a self-addressed reply-paid windbag is always enclosed. Each returned questionnaire shall be entered into a database and the data from the database will be retrieved with the permission of the unit private instructor and the self-assertion local ethic committee.3.6 Data Analysis and ResultsThe quantitative data will be analyzed using combination of descriptive and statistical inference techniques. While the results will be presented in the form of graphs and chart as appropriate. I will take P-values for each of the satisfaction indicators using appropriate non-parametric test (Chi Square). Although I specifically took statistic module this semester to be able to solve this problem, I will also seek advice from statistic expert to complement my knowledge. In thi s research, P value greater than 0.05 will not be accepted as the confidence breakup shall be set at 95%.The qualitative aspect of the data will be analyzed by read and re-reading the receipt and thus categorizing them into themes. This may involve assigning abbreviated codes to the points as they emerge from the data. whence the connection between the categories will be traced. The number of respondents that touch on each theme will be noted.All effort to pass bias will be made by making sure every stage of the digest is objective as much as possible in comment. This is likely to be a laborious crop I will therefore seek advice from my supervisor regarding the analysis and interpretation of the data. If possible, computer software may be used in analysis of the qualitative data however this will be discussed with my supervisor.Reliability of the instrumentThe reliability of the instrument shall be determined through a test-retest method. This questionnaire will be administe red to 10 clients within the study setting but not within the study participants. After a span of 2 weeks, the same instrument will be re-administered on the same set of 10 people and the results will be analyzed. Correlation of the responses will be determined using Pearsons correlation co-efficient.3.8 Ethical issuesAs stated originally in this proposal, the team has been collecting patient perception of the services we are providing using questionnaire since 2005. Prior to the commencement of using the questionnaire on the entire client that received therapeutic intervention from our team, ethical permission will be sought from the trust research ethical committee as well as from the line manager.To make sure that participant autonomy was respected, all questionnaires were accompanied by letter informing them that we do not need to know their name and that all the information provided by them will be treated anonymously they were also informed in the letter that taking part in the survey is on voluntary basis and will not affect the services provided to them in anyway. Although there is a home for their contact information at the back of the questionnaire, this is incase the client would like someone to contact them regarding their concern. The decision to participate in the survey is left to patient by not giving them any follow up phone call regarding the questionnaire, which may lead to coercion.Also their anonymity is well-kept by not recording their contact information on the database, the information they provided were recorded anonymously. This is why we may be unable to follow up patients that did not respond, because it is impossible to know who responded or who did not responded. Unless they decided to herald their identity if there is an issue they wanted to be resolved regarding the questionnaire. scour if they choose to reveal their identity, their personal details are not stored on the survey database to maintain their confidentiality an d anonymity.Although the team has been give approval by the trust local ethic committee before commencing the survey, however prior to draw out the data form the database for the purpose of this research. I will keep mum have to seek approval from my line manager and the trust research ethical committee, because the earlier approval was given to the team and not to me as individual for the purpose of this research. Although I was informed that for this font of research, it would not be necessary to seek approval from the institution ethic committee, however I will also seek advice from my research supervisor regarding the position of the school ethic committee on this type of research.3.9 RigorA patient satisfaction survey can be a rich source of information for continuous quality improvement but only if it is examined carefully and used within a consistent simulation (Lin and Kelly 1995). Non-response is a problem in survey (Lin and Kelly 1995), this problem was solved by incl uding a self addressed reply-paid envelope and a covering letter load-bearing(a) the client to complete the survey without coharsing them. Other factors that may influence response rate identified through the search of literature were length of the questionnaire, Pre-notification, Post-notification, and fiscal incentives. The length of a questionnaire can have negative impact on response rate (Yammorino, skinner, Childers (1991), this was one of the reasons why the team made sure that the questions were not more than ten when the questionnaire was designed.A lot of literature suggested that respondent pre-notification could have positive effect on response rate. Among the supporter of respondent pre-notification are Haggett and Michell (1994), they found that response to postal mail survey increases with pre-notification. In contrast, Herberlin and Baumgarther (1978) reported that pre-notification has little or no effect on response rate to mail survey. However, we feel that infor ming them in advance may increase the response rate, and therefore we tend to inform our client that we will be sending questionnaire to them with their discharge letter. We always inform them that filling-in the questionnaire will help us to know if we are meeting their needs or not.Although some researchers like Paul, Walsh and Tzelepls (2005) suggested that fiscal incentives can increase response rate, however, I personally feel that monetary incentive may influence the feedback, because the respondent may feel oblige to give positive feedback because of the incentive paid.Yammarino, Skinner and Childer (1991) were of the opinion that the response rate can be increased with follow-up calls, however there is no way to know who is not responding unless the questionnaire is coded, so that the respondents may be identifiable, this will brake their anonymity, therefore we have choose not to be following up, because it will be inappropriate.It is be essential to establish the reliabi lity of the instrument. Although the reliability and validity were evaluated before we commence using it for data collection, however, to be sure that the questionnaire is reliable and valid, I will carry out reliability and validity evaluation as part of this research. Reliability will be assessed using test re-test technique while the validity will be tested using content and face value technique.. Colleagues (2 or 3) from other teams ( for example District Nurses, Rapid Response Team) as well as service users (2 or 3) will be asked to comment on the adequacy of the questionnaire in evaluating patient satisfaction with the services they received from our team.3.10 LimitationsAlthough crazy effort will be made to reduce bias and errors in the research however there are some limitations that will always be there despite all the effort.Some of the limitation of this type of research includes non-response by some of the participants, in this research most of the respondents are elder ly people. Some of them may not be able to respond because of their medical condition, fragility, eyesight problem, cognitive deficit, and general weakness among others. Language roadblock may be another limitation that may lead to non-response considering the fact that Luton is multi-ethnic town. This is in line with the findings of Ehinfors and Smedby (1993).Apart from non-response, another limitation is that some participants may misinterpret the questions, and this may influence their response and subsequently the result. However subjecting the questionnaire to reliability and validity test can minimize this.3.11 Time frameThe research involves getting permission from the local ethics committee, pulling out the data from the data base, transferring the data into the SPSS software, analysis of the data, drawing conclusion and recommendation. The parturiency involved will take about three months approximately for the research to be completed including the writing up.3.12 Dissemin ationThe research will be submitted to the School of Health and Social Care, Oxford Brookes University as part of academic requirement for my MSc Rehabilitation.The research will also be presented to my team manager and team members. If manager and team are happy later on valuate the research critically, my manager in agreement with the trust management may place the findings on the trust website so that it can be companionable to the public.ReferencesBaker, R. (2001). A Method for Surveying longanimous Satisfaction Manual for Users, clinical Governance Research and Development Unit, Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Leicester.Carr-Hill, R. (1992). The measurement of patient satisfaction. daybook of Public Health Medicine,14(3)236-249.Davies, S. (2006). Rehabilitation, the use of theories and models in practice. 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(1995), Methodological issues in patient satisfaction surveys, International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 8( 6) p.32-7OHolleran, J. D., Kocher, M. S., Horan, M. P., Briggs, K. K., and Hawkins, R. J. (2005) Determinants of patient satisfaction with outcome after rotator cuff surgery. Journal of bone and joint surgery (America) 87(1)121-6..Paul, C. L., Walsh, R. A., and Tzelepis, F. (2005). A monetary incentive increases postal survey response rates for pharmacists. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health,59, 1099-1101.Polit, F.D., and Hungler B.P., (1989). Essentials of Nursing Research Methods, Appraisal, and Utilization, Second edition.Reichardt, C. S., and T. D. Cook. (1978). Beyond Qualitative Versus Quantitative Methods. In Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Evaluation Research, pp. 7-32. Thousand Oaks, CA Sage.Shepard, K. F., Jensen, G. M., Schmll, B. J., Hack, L. M., and Gwyer, J. (1993). Alternative approaches to research in physical therapy positivism and phenomenology. Physical Therapy 7388-101Tam, J.L.M. (2005), Examining the dynamics of consumer expectations in a Chinese context, Journal of Business R esearch, 58 p.777-86.Ware, J. E., Synder, M, K., Wright, W. R., and Davies, A. R,.(1983) be and measuring patient satisfaction with medical care. Evaluation and Program Planning. 6 247Yammarino, F. J., Skinner, S., Childers, T. L. (1991). Understanding mail survey response behavior. Public Opinion Quarterly, 55, 613-639.Appendices1- Patient Satisfaction Questionaire