What are patient-reported measures (PRMs)?
Patient-reported measures (PRMs) capture information via surveys, which ask patients about their healthcare experiences and the outcomes of their care.
Patient-reported measures can be grouped into the following two categories:
Patient reported experience measures (PREMs)
PREMs capture the patient's perception of their experience with healthcare or services
Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs)
PROMs capture the patient's perspectives about how illness or care impacts on their health and wellbeing
Why use PRMs?
With today’s technological advancements, there is a lot we can tell about a patient without even talking to them (e.g. their heart rate and blood pressure, and recent admission history). However, unless patients (and/or their carers) are asked about what is important to them and how they rate their quality of life and experiences of healthcare, we don’t know the whole picture.
The evidence demonstrates that clinical indicators often fail to correspond with how a patient is feeling. Therefore, it is important to routinely ask for the patient's perceptions of their own health and wellbeing, at the point of care.
This can be achieved through the systematic collection and use of patient-reported measures (PRMs). There is good evidence to demonstrate that patients who are more engaged in their healthcare tend to choose less costly interventions (e.g. presenting to a physiotherapist for lower back pain instead of hospital emergency).
PRMs have also been well documented to support clinician decision-making and shared care planning. They are a good indicator for overall patient outcomes; especially in those conditions marked by a person’s level of health and wellbeing, rather than their risk of dying.
More about the evidence supporting the use of PRMs
Success factors
To achieve improvements in clinical care and service delivery, PRMs must be:
- reliable, valid and sensitive to detect change
- relevant and meaningful to patients and clinicians
- not duplicating work or be overly burdensome
- inclusive (by aiming for high response rates across the target population to include people with complex needs)
- acted upon at the point of care – meaning that PRMs data is used collaboratively by the care team at the various levels (patient, service and system) to improve and integrate care
- culturally appropriate, culturally safe and relevant to all populations.
What is the PRMs Program?
The statewide Patient Reported Measures (PRMs) Program uses patient feedback at point of care across all levels of the health system to drive improvements in care.
This video provides information about the PRMs Program, including:
- what is the PRMs Program
- who is participating in the program
- how can patient-reported measures be used in a clinical consultation
- why is it important (i.e. the benefits of patient-reported measures, from a patient and clinician viewpoint)?
Aboriginal health and patient-reported measures
The PRMs program has been co-designed to support the culturally-appropriate and culturally-safe design, implementation, collection and use of PRMs.
In December 2019, the ACI established a Patient Reported Measures Aboriginal Health Working Group.
The purpose of the PRMs Aboriginal Health Working Group is to assess the cultural validity of the current patient-reported outcome measures (PROM) tools for Aboriginal populations across the state, with specific reference to the health-related quality of life (QoL) tool.
The QoL measures must be meaningful, culturally relevant, validated and fit-for-purpose for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.
The working group is supporting the proof of concept and evaluation of the identified QoL PROM within Aboriginal communities and is co-designing an Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance Framework.
This work will support the routine and systematic collection of PRMs across NSW in a culturally-appropriate way.
Communicating about PRMs in a culturally-appropriate way
The PRMs Aboriginal Health Working Group commissioned Aboriginal artist Denis Golding to produce an artwork that references patient-reported measures through indigenous cultural symbolism and creative practices of innovation.
Circular objects referencing camping grounds, meeting places and sites which are connected through lined patterns are used to represent pathways or river systems. Included within these images are boomerangs which a strong representation of cultural practice and technologies of weapons for hunting and throwing. These are innovative practices, which continue to share knowledge, skills and experiences that echo the same practices of PRMs to heighten Indigenous stories and contemporary experiences.
This artwork will be uploaded on to iPad devices and displayed at proof-of-concept sites.
Email ACI-PRM@health.nsw.gov.au if you would like to be involved in the PRMs Aboriginal Health Working Group.
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