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Rheumatoid arthritis
Short report
Evaluating quality of care in rheumatoid arthritis: the patient perspective
  1. Sehrash Mahmood1,
  2. Marianne van Oosterhout2,
  3. Sija de Jong2,
  4. Robert Landewé1,
  5. Piet van Riel3 and
  6. Lilian H D van Tuyl1
  1. 1 Amsterdam Rheumatology and Immunology Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  2. 2 Dutch Arthritis Foundation, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  3. 3 Department of Rheumatology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
  1. Correspondence to Dr Sehrash Mahmood; sehrash_01{at}hotmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1136/rmdopen-2016-000411

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    Introduction

    As rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a potentially disabling disease, affecting up to 1% of the population, structural monitoring of standardised outcomes to identify best healthcare practices is vital to quality improvement.1 2 Seven sets of RA standardised outcomes or ‘quality indicators’ have been described in the literature.3 However, only one group involved patients.4

    This lack of patient representation in the current indicator sets might be due to the common methodology of indicator selection: indicators are determined through systematic searches of evidence-based literature and consultation of experts, usually defined as clinicians or researchers, rather than patients.

    Studies have shown that patients and healthcare providers have different perspectives regarding quality of care.5 6 As the patient is the customer in the business called ‘health care’, the quality of the product should meet the costumers’ needs. Therefore, we have studied the patient’s perspective on quality of care in order to incorporate this together with the clinician’s perspective into quality indicators.

    Methods

    Patients were consulted using focus group methodology in combination with an online survey. The focus group method is a well-established research technique, gathering rich, descriptive data from participants in a small and homogeneous group, who focus on a specific topic, while guided by a neutral moderator.7

    Study sample and procedure

    Phase I: focus group discussion

    Nine patients of the established patient partner network of the Dutch Arthritis Foundation were invited to the focus group discussion (FGD).

    Participants received an invitation and written information on the topic of the study by email. Prior to the meeting all patients gave oral consent to record the meeting and to use the results of this meeting for research purposes. Transcripts of the recording were analysed by one researcher (SM).

    The moderator (MvO) explained the purpose of the discussion, created a ‘safe environment’ and ensured that participants did not deviate too much from the topic. …

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