Developing and testing a measure of quality of transition.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Developing and testing a measure to evaluate care transition quality for elderly patients.
IRAS ID
237803
Contact name
Charles Vincent
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Background: Older people are the highest users of the NHS and, with the number of people in the UK aged 65 and over set to double in the next 30 years, this group of patients is an important target for support to improve transitions of care. Patients now spend less time in hospital than they did 10 years ago. However, this also means that patients leave hospital sicker with ongoing treatment needs. As the transition period can be a risky one, particularly for older patients with complex needs and who may be anxious, confused and disorientated, it is important to investigate patient experience and safety at the transitions of care.
Current study: In this research, we will try to understand the experience and safety of care for older patients during transitions. As part of the work, we will develop a measure that captures the quality of care transitions by exploring different domains of safety and patient experience. This involves administering a questionnaire and open-ended questions to capture patients’ experiences of care.
How: The measure will be designed to be administered over the phone or by post. We will test the measure with 15 participants who have recently experienced a transition. We will then review the measure and formally assess it with 100 participants.
Results: We will examine the internal reliability of measure sub-scales which will allow us to identify redundant items or those that do not appear to measure transition quality. We will also explore the extent to which scores on the measure are associated with the patient safety and quality of the transition.REC name
London - Chelsea Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/0568
Date of REC Opinion
27 Mar 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion