Use of the PREM (Patient Reported Experience Measure) questionnaire in a Caribbean population

Introduction Patient satisfaction is one measure of the quality of health care in an emergency department, and a driver for service improvement. Many patient surveys have been developed; however these are often completed by adults with little or no input from children and young people. This study used the PREM (Patient Reported Experience Measure) questionnaire, developed by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, and validated for use by children and their carers in the emergency department.

Methods The study was conducted from May 1st to 31st, 2014 at the Pediatric Emergency Department, at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Trinidad, which sees approximately 60,000 children per year. 175 completed questionnaires were analysed, and problem scores calculated then compared to those obtained in the eight United Kingdom hospitals who participated in the initial RCPCH pilot study.

Results The problem scores were similar to those obtained in UK hospitals, reflecting similar themes across emergency departments. 3 problem scores fell outside of the range of scores obtained from the UK hospitals, which pointed to issues with timely recognition and management of patients’ pain, patient privacy and discharge information.

Conclusion The problems identified by the PREM survey were similar to those seen in the UK. An action plan has been developed to address these, and it is planned that a repeat PREM survey will be performed following implementation of these changes to see if there have been improvements.