Family involvement and patient-experienced improvement and satisfaction with care: a nationwide cross-sectional study in Danish psychiatric hospitals.

Background: Randomised controlled trials suggest that family therapy has a positive effect on the course of depression, schizophrenia and anorexia nervosa. However, it is largely unknown whether a positive link also exists between caregiver involvement and patient outcome in everyday psychiatric hospital care, using information reported directly from patients, i.e.

Patient-reported outcome measures in the interaction between patient and clinician - a multi-perspective qualitative study.

Background: This article addresses patient-reported outcome (PRO)-based follow-up used as a substitute for regularly scheduled follow-ups. In PRO-based follow-up, patients' PRO data filled in by the patients at home are used by clinicians as a decision aid to identify those who need clinical attention based on an automated PRO algorithm, clinical attention being either a phone call or a physical consultation. A physical consultation in the outpatient clinic prompted by the patient's PRO is termed a "PRO consultation.

PRO-based follow-up as a means of self-management support - an interpretive description of the patient perspective.

Background: There is an increasing focus on the use of patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures to improve the quality and effectiveness of health care. PRO-based follow-up is a new model of service delivery, where the patient's PRO measures are used as the very basis for outpatient follow-up.

Objectives: This study aimed to explore how patients with epilepsy experience the use of PRO-based follow-up in three outpatient clinics in the Central Denmark Region.

Exploring organisational mechanisms in PRO-based follow-up in routine outpatient care - an interpretive description of the clinician perspective.

Background: Patient-reported outcome (PRO)-based follow-up is a new model of service delivery, where PRO measures are used as the very basis for demand-driven outpatient follow-up in patients with chronic diseases. Adopting the clinicians' perspective, we aimed to explore what happens when PRO-based follow-up is implemented in routine clinical practice. We also aimed to identify organisational mechanisms related to PRO-based follow-up.

[Successful patient-activated help call for a doctor during in-hospital stay].

Department of Medicine, Randers Regional Hospital, conducted a study of patient-activated help call, involving 1,050 patients with nearly 3,700 days in-hospital stay. Patients were encou-raged to bypass traditional clinical hierarchy of communication when they felt, that their concern was not met by the staff. Three help calls were related to the management of pain.

A Danish adaptation of the quality in psychiatric care-forensic in-patient questionnaire: psychometric properties and factor structure.

Objective: The aims of this study were to adapt and evaluate the psychometric properties and factor structure of the Danish version of the Quality in Psychiatric Care-Forensic In-Patient (QPC-FIP) questionnaire.

Methods: A sample of 139 inpatients from 25 wards in Denmark who received care during 5 weeks in March and April 2012 participated in the study by completing the QPC-FIP instrument.

Results: Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the factor structure of the Danish version was equivalent to that of the original Swedish QPC-FIP.

Use of Patient-Reported Outcome (PRO) Measures at Group and Patient Levels: Experiences From the Generic Integrated PRO System, WestChronic.

Background: Patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures may be used at a group level for research and quality improvement and at the individual patient level to support clinical decision making and ensure efficient use of resources. The challenges involved in implementing PRO measures are mostly the same regardless of aims and diagnostic groups and include logistic feasibility, high response rates, robustness, and ability to adapt to the needs of patient groups and settings. If generic PRO systems can adapt to specific needs, advanced technology can be shared between medical specialties and for different aims.

Hospitals need to customise care according to patients' differing information-seeking behaviour.

Introduction: The aim of the study was to describe how often patients seek information about their disease in connection with contact to a hospital and to elucidate how information-seeking behaviour is related to the patients' perception of this contact.

Material And Methods: The study was based on patient surveys from the Danish county of Aarhus from 1999 to 2006 including eight public hospitals. The patients' information-seeking behaviour was related to patient characteristics, organisational context and patient perceptions.

Positive patients' attitudes to prehospital care.

Introduction: The aim of the study was to elucidate the patients' perceptions of the whole prehospital "chain-of survival" from the 1-1-2 call was made to arrival at the hospital; we wanted to study especially the impact different urgency levels had on patients' overall impression.

Material And Methods: The study was based on 1-1-2 medical emergency calls and forms a part of a larger postal survey among 6,535 patients who requested and received ambulance services. The answers were dichotomized into "problem scores" and "non-problem scores".

The value of open-ended questions in surveys on patient experience: number of comments and perceived usefulness from a hospital perspective.

Objective: To analyse the patients' inclination to comment in generic patient surveys, and to evaluate how these comments were received and used for quality improvement by the hospitals.

Design: The study is based on quantitative and qualitative data from four rounds of patient satisfaction surveys from 1999 to 2006. The open-ended questions and their applicability were evaluated by hospital and department management teams in a survey and by hospital employees and leaders, in semi-structured interviews.

Referral of paediatric patients follows geographic borders of administrative units.

Introduction: This observational study examines changes in paediatric hospital-seeking behaviour at Kolding Hospital in The Region of Southern Denmark (RSD) following a major change in administrative units in Denmark on 1 January 2007.

Material And Methods: Data on the paediatric admissions from 2004 to 2009 reported by department of paediatrics and municipalities were drawn from the Danish National Hospital Registration. Patient hospital-seeking behaviour was related to changes in the political/administrative units.

[The Internet influences the patient-physician relationship].

So far, we have only limited knowledge on how the patients' use of the Internet affects consultations. A review of 36 empirically based articles from 1999 to 2009 demonstrates that patients' Internet search for health information is widespread. However, there are signs that the impact of Internet searches on consultations is limited as a number of factors reduce the probability of an effect on the dialogue between physician and patient.

Semi-customizing patient surveys: linking results and organizational conditions.

Objective: The study investigated the needs and consequences of semi-customizing patient satisfaction surveys to low organizational levels and explored whether patient satisfaction was correlated with local organizational conditions.

Design: From 1999 to 2006, the County of Aarhus carried out 398 surveys during four rounds in eight hospitals. To explain differences between the wards, data on the 40 wards with the best and the 40 wards with the worst evaluations (identified by patient surveys) were compared with the data from job satisfaction surveys and management information systems.

[Patient satisfaction in relation to organizational conditions].

Introduction: Measuring patient satisfaction is increasingly done by generic standardized instruments in the context of which follow-up has been reported as problematic. The aim of the study was to investigate if a more customized design would make patient satisfaction surveys more interesting and useful for the clinicians.

Material And Methods: During the period 1999-2006, the County of Aarhus carried out 398 surveys in four rounds at the County's eight hospitals.

[An evaluation of patient satisfaction surveys by heads of hospitals and departments].

Introduction: The point of departure is that patient satisfaction surveys should be designed and organized in a manner that furthers ownership and responsibility ensuring follow-up by those who are to employ the results. This study therefore evaluates the perceived usefulness of patient satisfaction surveys among heads of departments and heads of hospitals.

Material And Methods: During the period from 1999 to 2006, the County of Aarhus performed four patient survey series.

[Can patient satisfaction change over time?].

Introduction: Though use of repeated generic measurements of patient satisfaction is increasing, we have limited knowledge of how results change over time. The present study focused on systematic changes of inpatients' satisfaction both at high and low organizational levels, and addressed the question of whether there is an association to occupancy rates, acute rates and local leaders' evaluation of the concept for monitoring patient satisfaction.

Material And Methods: During the period from 1999 to 2006, the County of Aarhus carried out detailed patient satisfaction surveys over four periods in eight somatic hospitals.

Patient surveys--a key to organizational change?

Objective: The objective was to investigate whether semi-customized patient satisfaction surveys are seen as useful by hospital management, and to explore their possible effects on quality improvement over time at a low organizational level.

Methods: Data were collected from three sources: (1) patient surveys administered in eight public hospitals with a total of 2200 beds in a Danish county; (2) questionnaires completed by the hospital and clinical department managers; and (3) data from the county's Management Information System.

Results: Patient satisfaction surveys were widely accepted as a tool for change.