Incentivized digital outcomes collection.

The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of digital patient satisfaction outcomes collection using the Internet and interactive voice response technology. Patients, health care providers, and industry sponsors were provided with incentives to participate. The participants included the practitioners and patients in medical and surgical practices who used Project Quality Card (patent pending) and the Practice Improvement Program. The study subjects were convenience samples of new and established patients seen between September 1999 and December 2000. There were 3 different pilot projects: QC1, QC2, and QC3. Patients were provided with a 20-minute prepaid phone card as an incentive for completing an interactive voice response call. Patients answered the 9-item visit rating questionnaire used to measure patient satisfaction. Patients responded on a 5-point scale, with 5 being excellent, and responses were totaled in the categories of patient access and physician attributes and in an overall score for the visit. A total of 998 patients from 77 physician offices participated. The activation responses, or percentage of patients using the Quality Cards, ranged from 12.8% in group 2 (QC2) to 26.6% in group 1 (QC1) to 34.8% in group 3 (QC3). This study demonstrates that incentivized digital outcomes collection can be successfully implemented in multisite community-based medical and surgical offices. The use of Project Quality Card (interactive voice response technology) and the Practice Improvement Program provides opportunities for user-friendly, benchmarked, real-time data collection. The percentage of patient activations is linked to provider participation in quality improvement programs. Patient participation is improved as the frequency of contact with a peer-directed database increases.