Patient Reported Outcomes Measures (PROMs)
A more rounded way of measuring treatment outcomes
What are PROMs?
Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) measure quality from the patient perspective. Initially covering four clinical procedures, PROMs calculate the health gain after surgical treatment using pre and post operative surveys.
The four procedures are
- hip replacements
- knee replacements
- hernia
- varicose veins
From 1 April 2009, all providers of NHS-funded care have been required to collect PROMs for these four clinical areas.
PROMs are measures of a patient's health status or health-related quality of life. They are typically short, self-completed questionnaires, which measure the patients' health status or health related quality of life at a single point in time. The health status information collected from patients by way of PROMs questionnaires before and after an intervention provides an indication of the outcomes or quality of care delivered to NHS Patients.
Who is responsible for delivering PROMs?
PROMs are co-ordinated by the Department of Health. A number of organisations are involved in the collection, processing and analysis and reporting of PROMs data, including Providers, PCT Commissioners, The NHS Information Centre and contractors.
- Department of Health guidance materials for NHS providers and details of other organisations' roles in PROMs (external).
- Information for patients, including a video clip and frequently asked questions (external).
What is happening now?
We have reviewed the current PROMs publication through a consultation survey and an operational assessment, to identify the most effective way to release this data. Following this, we have decided to change the frequency of the PROMs publication and the period that it covers.
Between April 2010 and August 2010 PROMs data was published on a monthly basis and considered data from pre-operative questionnaires only. Between September 2010 and July 2011 we continued to publish data on a monthly basis, but also included the analysis of data from post-operative questionnaires. During these periods, data was reported cumulatively, that is, each month saw a further month of data added to the dataset.
Finalised PROMs figures
In August 2011 the first annual refresh of PROMs data was published. This finalised the data for PROMs pre-operative questionnaires completed in the period April 2009 to March 2010 and any associated post-operative questionnaires that had been returned.
From August 2011 on, data will be spilt by financial year to enable comparison. Provisional data for each financial year will continue to increase in size until the next annual refresh covering the period April 2010 to March 2011.
Provisional PROMs figures
We will continue to produce national headline figures (Key Facts) on a monthly basis. We will now produce the PROMs spreadsheets produced (including participation rates, provider and commissioner tables, the score comparison spreadsheet and associated CSV files) on a quarterly (three month) basis. Business Objects HES interrogation and extract service users will continue to have access to the latest data.
Moving to a quarterly publication will enable us to explore the dataset further, allowing the development of additional reports on different aspects of the data and making the publication more varied and interesting.
Changes to the methodology
We have also made a change to the methodology used in the score comparison spreadsheet. Following a review by the PROMs programme instead of the current comparison charts, funnel plots will be used.