A Systematic Review of Surveys for Measuring Patient-centered Care in the Hospital Setting

Patient-centered care (PCC) is a core component of quality care and its measurement is fundamental for research and improvement efforts. However, an inventory of surveys for measuring PCC in hospitals, a core care setting, is not available.

To identify surveys for assessing PCC in hospitals, assess PCC dimensions that they capture, report their psychometric properties, and evaluate applicability to individual and/or dyadic (eg, mother-infant pairs in pregnancy) patients.

We conducted a systematic review of articles published before January 2019 available on PubMed, Web of Science, and EBSCO Host and references of extracted papers to identify surveys used to measure "patient-centered care" or "family-centered care." Surveys used in hospitals and capturing at least 3 dimensions of PCC, as articulated by the Picker Institute, were included and reviewed in full. Surveys' descriptions, subscales, PCC dimensions, psychometric properties, and applicability to individual and dyadic patients were assessed.

Thirteen of 614 articles met inclusion criteria. Nine surveys were identified, which were designed to obtain assessments from patients/families (n=5), hospital staff (n=2), and both patients/families and hospital staff (n=2). No survey captured all 8 Picker dimensions of PCC [median=6 (range, 5-7)]. Psychometric properties were reported infrequently. All surveys applied to individual patients, none to dyadic patients.

Multiple surveys for measuring PCC in hospitals are available. Opportunities exist to improve survey comprehensiveness regarding dimensions of PCC, reporting of psychometric properties, and development of measures to capture PCC for dyadic patients.