National Quality and Safety Indicators – Consumer Experience

3September2013

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Introduction

The Health Quality & Safety Commission (the Commission) is a stand-alone Crown Entity, established in November 2010, with a Board responsible to the Minister of Health. The Commission helps private and public providers across the health and disability sector improve service safety and quality.

Background

The Commissionis developing a set of national health quality and patient safety indicators that support improvement of health services in New Zealand, as articulated in the New Zealand Triple Aim Framework:

  • Improved quality, safety and experience of care
  • Improved health and equity for all populations
  • Best value for public health system resources.

Understanding the consumer/patient experience is vital to improving patient safety and the quality of service delivery. It has been shown to be a sound indicator of the quality of health and disability services. Growing evidence indicates that better experience, developing partnerships with consumers, and patient and family-centered care are linked to improved health, clinical, financial, service and satisfaction outcomes.[1][2][3][4]By integrating the learnings from consumer experiences in a quality improvement programme, there are increased chances of service improvement.

There is currently no nationally consistent data source for a measure to adequately address this area. This leaves a cleargap in the Commission’s national quality and safety indicator set and in the Ministry of Health’s accountability metrics.

The Commission recently completed a project to determine what to measure at the national and district health board level and propose a coherent set of measures of consumer/patient experience aligned with international best practice and global trends that are able to be used to drive improved quality of care. The Commission is now close to finalising a draft tool to be adopted nationally as a minimum standard for DHB measurement of inpatient experience. We are seeking proposals from providers to cognitively test, refine and evaluatethis draft tool.

Proposals sought

We seek proposals to design, undertake and report the results from a short programme of cognitive testing of a draft tool built from internationally validated questions concerning patient experience. These specific questions have not been previously validated as part of a national system in New Zealand so the cognitive testing must include aspects of cultural appropriateness. We are looking for a focused, time bound evaluation, not a full research project.

We anticipate that at least two rounds of cognitive testing with patients selected from one or more DHBs will be required, with refinement of the tool between rounds.

The final deliverable will include a clear report outlining benefits and challenges associated with the tool and a recommended final design of the tool.

Provider requirements

  • Clear understanding of the Commission’s requirements
  • Expertise in the designand administration of surveys
  • Expertise in designing and undertaking cognitive testing of survey tools
  • Expertise in evaluation and tool design
  • Experience in report writing
  • Strong track record of delivery to tight deadlines

Timing

The Commission requires the work to be delivered by November 15 2013. A project plan with intermediate milestones will be agreed with the successful provider.

Application process

Proposals must follow the format shown in the attached template (Appendix A)and be delivered to the Commission’s contact person, by the closing date. Please mark proposals: ‘RFPNational Quality and Safety Indicators – Consumer Experience ’. Proposals should be provided in the following formats:

  • fivehard copies
  • oneelectronic copy (Microsoft Word-compatible format).

The Commission will acknowledge the receipt of all proposals. All notices regarding this RFP process will be forwarded to the address you provide in your submission.

Enquiries

Please make any general enquiries about this RFP process during business hours to the Commission’s contact person:

Richard Hamblin

Director of Health Quality Evaluation

Health Quality & Safety Commission

Level 6, Classic House

15–17 Murphy Street

Wellington

Tel: 04 901 6068

Email:

Timelines for the RFP process

RFPs must be received by 5pm on 20 September2013(“the closing date”) by the Commission’s contact person specified above. Key project milestones are expected to be as follows (note that this timetable may be subject to change):

Date / Milestone
3 September 2013 / RFP released
20 September 2013 / Closing date for submissions (5.00pm)
26 September 2013 / Evaluations completed
27 September 2013 / Notifications to submitters

Budget

The total budget for this contract is a maximum of $40,000 excluding GST.

APPENDIX A

Response template

If you want to provideextrasupporting information, please attach additional sheets and reference these in the main submission.

  1. Provider details

Full name of provider:
Primary contact person for the party(ies) submittingthis response:
Phone:
Mobile:
Postal:
Email:
Address where services will be provided:
Organisational profile:
Who will actually provide the services?
  1. Outline your ability to provide the services and deliverables described in the RFP.

  1. Describe your particular skills and strengthsto provide the services and deliverables described in the RFP.

  1. Describe your past experience in providing similar services and deliverables to those described in the RFP– please include evidence.

  1. Provide evidence of your knowledge of methods and systems for the collection of quantitative and qualitative data.

  1. Please provide a provisional budget setting out how you would allocate funding.

  1. What do you consider to be the key elements to the successful delivery of this contract?

  1. Please provide two referees who can verify this submission, if required.

1

[1]Picker Institute Policy Position no. 3: Why patients should share in decision-making? Oxford: Picker Institute Europe. URL:

[2]Balik B, Conway J, Zipperer L, et al. 2011. Achieving an Exceptional Patient and Family Experience of Inpatient Hospital Care. IHI Innovation Series white paper. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Institute for Healthcare Improvement. URL:

[3]CAHPS® Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. 2010. The Clinical Case for Improving Patient Experience. URL:

[4]CAHPS® Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. 2010. The Business Case for Improving Patient Experience. URL: