How do third sector organisations or charities providing health and well-being services in England implement patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs)? A qualitative interview study

Objectives To identify the facilitators and barriers to implementing patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in third sector organisations (TSOs) delivering health and well-being services.Design A qualitative interview study. Participants were recruited using purposive, opportunistic and snowballi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Alicia O'Cathain, Alexis Foster, Janet Harris
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMJ Publishing Group 2020-10-01
Series:BMJ Open
Online Access:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/10/e039116.full
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1846165883665252352
author Alicia O'Cathain
Alexis Foster
Janet Harris
author_facet Alicia O'Cathain
Alexis Foster
Janet Harris
author_sort Alicia O'Cathain
collection DOAJ
description Objectives To identify the facilitators and barriers to implementing patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in third sector organisations (TSOs) delivering health and well-being services.Design A qualitative interview study. Participants were recruited using purposive, opportunistic and snowballing methods. Framework analysis was used.Setting TSOs including charities, community groups and not-for-profit organisations in England, UK.Participants Thirty interviewees including service users, TSO front-line workers and managers, commissioners of TSOs and other stakeholders such as academic researchers.Results TSOs primarily used PROMs because of pressures arising from the external funding context. However, organisations often struggled to implement PROMs, rarely getting the process right first time. Facilitators for implementation included having an implementation lead committed to making it work, investing resources in data management systems and support staff and taking a collaborative approach to designing the PROMs process. The latter helped to ensure an appropriate PROMs process for the specific TSO including choosing a suitable measure and planning how data would be collected, processed and used. There was a dilemma about whether TSOs should use standardised well-being measures (eg, the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale) or design their own PROM. Not all TSOs sustained the collection and reporting of PROMs over time because this required a change in organisational culture to view PROMs as beneficial for the TSO and PROMs becoming part of front-line workers’ job specifications.Conclusions TSOs are trying to use PROMs because they feel they have no choice but often struggle with implementation. Having an implementation lead, designing an appropriate process, investing resources, training staff and taking mitigating action to address potential barriers can facilitate implementation. Some of the findings are consistent with the experiences of more clinical services so appear relevant to the implementation of PROMs irrespective of the specific context.
format Article
id doaj-art-17c0226273e249ef857f463d62d3c55d
institution Kabale University
issn 2044-6055
language English
publishDate 2020-10-01
publisher BMJ Publishing Group
record_format Article
series BMJ Open
spelling doaj-art-17c0226273e249ef857f463d62d3c55d2024-11-16T15:45:09ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552020-10-01101010.1136/bmjopen-2020-039116How do third sector organisations or charities providing health and well-being services in England implement patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs)? A qualitative interview studyAlicia O'Cathain0Alexis Foster1Janet Harris2Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UKSheffield centre for Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK1 The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UKObjectives To identify the facilitators and barriers to implementing patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in third sector organisations (TSOs) delivering health and well-being services.Design A qualitative interview study. Participants were recruited using purposive, opportunistic and snowballing methods. Framework analysis was used.Setting TSOs including charities, community groups and not-for-profit organisations in England, UK.Participants Thirty interviewees including service users, TSO front-line workers and managers, commissioners of TSOs and other stakeholders such as academic researchers.Results TSOs primarily used PROMs because of pressures arising from the external funding context. However, organisations often struggled to implement PROMs, rarely getting the process right first time. Facilitators for implementation included having an implementation lead committed to making it work, investing resources in data management systems and support staff and taking a collaborative approach to designing the PROMs process. The latter helped to ensure an appropriate PROMs process for the specific TSO including choosing a suitable measure and planning how data would be collected, processed and used. There was a dilemma about whether TSOs should use standardised well-being measures (eg, the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale) or design their own PROM. Not all TSOs sustained the collection and reporting of PROMs over time because this required a change in organisational culture to view PROMs as beneficial for the TSO and PROMs becoming part of front-line workers’ job specifications.Conclusions TSOs are trying to use PROMs because they feel they have no choice but often struggle with implementation. Having an implementation lead, designing an appropriate process, investing resources, training staff and taking mitigating action to address potential barriers can facilitate implementation. Some of the findings are consistent with the experiences of more clinical services so appear relevant to the implementation of PROMs irrespective of the specific context.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/10/e039116.full
spellingShingle Alicia O'Cathain
Alexis Foster
Janet Harris
How do third sector organisations or charities providing health and well-being services in England implement patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs)? A qualitative interview study
BMJ Open
title How do third sector organisations or charities providing health and well-being services in England implement patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs)? A qualitative interview study
title_full How do third sector organisations or charities providing health and well-being services in England implement patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs)? A qualitative interview study
title_fullStr How do third sector organisations or charities providing health and well-being services in England implement patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs)? A qualitative interview study
title_full_unstemmed How do third sector organisations or charities providing health and well-being services in England implement patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs)? A qualitative interview study
title_short How do third sector organisations or charities providing health and well-being services in England implement patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs)? A qualitative interview study
title_sort how do third sector organisations or charities providing health and well being services in england implement patient reported outcome measures proms a qualitative interview study
url https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/10/e039116.full
work_keys_str_mv AT aliciaocathain howdothirdsectororganisationsorcharitiesprovidinghealthandwellbeingservicesinenglandimplementpatientreportedoutcomemeasurespromsaqualitativeinterviewstudy
AT alexisfoster howdothirdsectororganisationsorcharitiesprovidinghealthandwellbeingservicesinenglandimplementpatientreportedoutcomemeasurespromsaqualitativeinterviewstudy
AT janetharris howdothirdsectororganisationsorcharitiesprovidinghealthandwellbeingservicesinenglandimplementpatientreportedoutcomemeasurespromsaqualitativeinterviewstudy