Kings Fund 7 November 2012
- Using data for more than 8,000 general practices in England, this paper examines the association between patients’ perceptions about the non-clinical aspects of care (based on patient survey) and practice performance on measures of clinical quality (based on QOF) .
- Key findings
- Both clinical effectiveness and patient experience are key domains of health care quality. By considering the relationship between them, general practices can better understand the quality of care they are providing and identify areas for improvement.
- Generally speaking, practices that deliver a good experience for their patients have higher QOF outcomes scores. The reverse is also true – practices whose patients are more negative about access to the practice and using its services generally perform less well on clinical quality.
- With some exceptions, practices that perform poorly on both clinical outcome measures and patient experience are more likely to be located in London and in more deprived areas. These practices face special challenges.
- Patients’ experience of using their GP services – especially ease of access – can affect their use of and interaction with those services, which could in turn affect the quality of their care.
