Patient experience
People receiving care have a unique perspective on the day-to-day running of a health service and how this affects them. Patient experience captures the events and experiences relevant to patients in health care, and how often it happens.
Patient experience vs satisfaction
- Experience is process focused – it captures patients’ self-reported observations and feelings about their interactions with health service workers, environments and processes.
- Satisfaction is opinion focused and is subjective – it captures what patients thought or felt about their experiences, and how satisfied they were with the service.
Why measure patient experience
Measuring patient experience helps to improve the safety and quality of health care by allowing organisations to see things from the patient’s perspective.
Routinely and systematically measuring patient experience supports health services to:
For consumers – Why have I been asked to do a patient experience survey
Hospitals and healthcare services may ask you to complete a survey to collect your experiences and feedback to help them improve the care and treatment they offer. We know that if patients have a good experience when receiving care, their treatment is more likely to succeed, and they are less likely to be readmitted or have complications.
For more information on patient experience survey and how this information is used by hospitals and healthcare services to improve the care they provide, visit the ‘For consumers’ webpage.
For health services – How to measure patient experience
Patient experience can be measured systematically through validated patient-reported experience measures (PREMs), and collected qualitatively through patient stories, focus groups and interviews. The Commission has developed a range of information and resources to support services to use patient experience to improve patient care.
Patient experience is one component of a comprehensive measurement and improvement system. The Commission has produced a suite of indicators that complement patient experience measurement, such as, measures of patient safety culture, complications acquired while in hospital, accreditation outcomes, mortality and serious in-hospital incidents.
Australian Hospital Patient Experience Question Set
The Australian Hospital Patient Experience Question Set (AHPEQS) is a 12-question survey answered by patients and is developed by the Commission through extensive consumer involvement.
- Download the Australian Hospital Patient Experience Question Set
Get the AHPEQS here
- AHPEQS Translations
Access to over 20 translations of AHPEQS, Easy English, and Braille
- Download the Australian Hospital Patient Experience Question Set - Parent
For parents and carers of children aged 0 to 18 years in paediatric inpatient settings
Patient experience measurement in primary health care
In 2023, the Commission undertook a literature review on patient experience measurement in primary health care. The report provides insight into the current state of patient experience measurement in primary health care in Australia and overseas. It identifies a range of challenges that need to be addressed for patient experience to be integrated into quality improvement in Australian primary care.
