Patient Reported Indicators Survey (PaRIS)
Measuring what matters to patients is critical to achieving better value. The OECD’s PaRIS project provides an opportunity for countries to work together to develop, standardize and implement common indicators measuring patients’ outcomes and experiences of health and care.
The International Survey of People Living with Chronic Conditions assesses the outcomes and experiences of patients in primary care and compares results across countries. This survey aims to fill a critical gap in primary health care, by asking about aspects like access to health care and waiting times, as well as quality of life, pain, physical functioning and psychological well-being. Value in health is the OECD’s national partner for this survey in Saudi Arabia.
Why a new survey of patients with chronic conditions?
Populations around the world, including Saudi Arabia, are aging and people with chronic conditions form the most rapidly growing group of health care users. In many OECD countries, around two-thirds of the population aged 45 and older have at least one chronic condition. Most of these people receive routine follow-up care in primary care, or other ambulatory care settings. The demographic distribution of the Kingdom is relatively very young, where 50% of the population is between 18-45, and there is a high prevalence of chronic diseases in this age group. Therefore, measuring the outcomes and experiences of persons with chronic diseases can lead to informed decision-making, resource allocation, and policy development, ultimately leading to more effective and equitable healthcare for the population. For this group of patients, countries are often unable to properly assess to what extent the care they receive makes a difference for them. Assessing the outcomes and experiences amongst them will shed light on whether the care patients receive contributes to better health results (are patients more functional, more active, with less pain) and to a better experience of care (is the care received patients seamless, and more tailored to their needs).
What are the benefits of the PaRIS survey?
The survey provides insight into what care really delivers to people. This information is essential to help policymakers better understand how their health systems are performing and how this could be improved. The survey sheds light on how successful health systems are and, in particular, how primary care, or other ambulatory care systems are responding to the needs of patients. It will tell what is working well in these countries and identify the areas that require policy attention. Health care providers who participate in the PaRIS survey receive feedback information. This aggregated information shows them the outcomes and experiences of their patient populations and how these compare to peers. This type of feedback information has proven to be a powerful tool to improve quality. Generating systematic data on outcomes and experiences is only a means to a goal: helping health systems become more people centered. Therefore, patients are the ultimate beneficiary of the PaRIS survey.
What will the PaRIS survey measure?
This is a survey of the outcomes and experiences of patients with one or more chronic conditions. The survey includes both Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMS) and Patient Reported Experience Measures (PREMS) for patients with chronic conditions. Examples of PROMS are ratings of peoples’ pain, physical functioning, and psychological well-being. Examples of PREMS are peoples’ experiences with healthcare, such as experienced waiting times and communication with healthcare providers. In addition to PROMS and PREMS, background characteristics such as age, sex and the type of conditions were collected and used in data analysis.
The implementation of the study was carried out in three phases:
- A field trial, from 2021 to mid-2022, where we tested the survey operations on a pilot sample.
- The main survey phase 1, measuring PROMs and PREMs of patients aged 45 and older, from mid-2022 to the end of 2023, on a large sample from the three main healthcare sectors at a national level.
- The main survey phase 2, measuring PROMs and PREMs of patients aged 18-45, from mid-2024 to the end of 2024.
PaRIS Project in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is undergoing a major health system transformation, which will improve access to health services, improve quality and efficiency of health and care services, and promote prevention against health risks.
Despite Saudi Arabia being a country with a relatively young population, over the past three decades there has been a substantial increase in non-communicable chronic diseases. By assessing the outcomes and experiences of service delivery in primary health care, the PaRIS project is an opportunity to identify any gaps in care provision and shed light on how the care patients’ receive contributes to better health results.
Partners
This survey is developed by the international PaRIS-SUR consortium, in close collaboration with participating countries and the OECD Secretariat. The consortium consists of five international partners:
- NIVEL (Consortium Leader), the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (consortium leader), Utrecht, The Netherlands www.nivel.nl
- Ipsos MORI, London, United Kingdom www.ipsos.com
- University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
- Avedis Donabedian Institute, Barcelona, Spain
- OptiMedis AG, Hamburg, Germany
The data was collected nationally from all three healthcare sectors in Saudi Arabia, The Ministry of Health, Other Governmental Hospitals, and private sector hospitals.
- The Ministry of Health through its primary care centers
- Primary care centers at the Ministry of Defense Healthcare Services
Various private hospitals including; AlMoosa Hospital, John Hopkins Aramco, Fakeeh Hospital, International Medical Center, First Clinic, Saudi German Hospital, and Riyadh Care Hospital
Value in health is the Saudi national body taking a country-wide lead in the delivery of this primary survey in primary health care centers.
The Center for Value in Health is partnering with Press Ganey and Health.Links in the delivery of the PaRIS project fieldwork.