The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #46451

Janet Greenblatt, MPH¹, Frances M. Chevarley, PhD², and Frances M. Chevarley, PhD². (1) Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2101 E. Jefferson Street, Rockville, MD 20852, 301-594-7599, jgreenbl@ahrq.gov, (2) Center for Cost and Financing Studies, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2101 East Jefferson St. Suite 500, Rockville, MD 20852

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is responsible for the production of a national quality reporting system which will produce a series of reports over time. The first report, to be completed in 2003, will focus primarily on existing data collections. To provide timely input to the quality of care analysis of patient satisfaction with medical care, a self-administered questionnaire was included in the 2000 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).

The MEPS is an ongoing panel survey designed to produce annual estimates of the health care utilization, expenditures, sources of payment, and insurance coverage of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population. The MEPS is cosponsored by AHRQ and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The sample of households selected for the MEPS is drawn from respondents to the prior year National Household Interview Survey (NHIS) which provides a nationally representative sample with oversampling of populations of interest. The MEPS uses an overlapping panel design in which data are collected through a preliminary contact followed by a series of five rounds of interviews over a 30-month period. A self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) was given to all adults responding to the 2000 MEPS to assess their quality of care in the last 12 months. A response rate of 87 percent was obtained. The questions on the SAQ were taken from the Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey (CAHPS). The SAQ includes questions concerning getting an appointment with a health professional as soon as needed for routine or emergency care and getting needed follow-up care. The questions concern how well health providers communicate with patients; whether patients think they were listed to, whether the health provider explained things so the patient understood and showed respect for what the patient had to say. Individuals are further asked if the health provider spend enough time with them and were asked to give an overall rating of the health care received. The results of the survey will be presented for the U.S. non-institutionalized population and for special populations of concern. Estimates will be presented by race/ethnicity, insurance coverage, regions of the country, gender for those ages 18-64 and age 65 and older. Estimates by employment status will be presented for those age 18-64.

Learning Objectives:

• 1.Participants will receive information about the 2003 National Quality Report and the role of the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey (MEPS) in informing the report will be discussed.
• 2.The process of adapting CAHPS questions for the Self-administered Questionnaire (SAQ) will be described.
• 3.Participants will be able to evaluate differences in patient satisfaction with provided medical services by selected subgroups of the U.S.population.

Keywords: Quality of Care, Access to Health Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: National Center for Health Statistics, CDC Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, DHHS
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.