“Patient reported outcome measures are a waste of time. They don’t help improve patient experience. They are an unwanted, administrative burden for clinicians. 

“At most, they give senior managers some data that they can cite to pretend they’re in touch with what’s happening ‘at the coalface’. They can also provide ivory tower academics with the fuel for their next citation…”

That’s a (deliberately exaggerated) take on what some people feel about the issue of patient reported outcome measures.

But I’d like to offer a brief perspective on why I think it matters, from the perspective of our work (in progress) within a specialist NHS mental health trust in South East England.

We’ve been talking to patients, carers and clinical staff about how we can use ReQoL in a way that helps measure and improve the care we provide to the communities we serve. This is difficult, complex, painstaking work. 

I’d like to highlight a few things about it that might help others who are treading the same path.

Firstly, we’ll only make this work if clinicians see and experience the value. At Sussex Partnership, this means we’ve spent, and continue to spend, lots of time (every minute of it essential) talking to clinical teams about how the use of ReQol can generate data that’s meaningful, relevant and useful to the tough day job of care planning and delivery. We’ll fall at the first hurdle unless we can articulate a clear, convincing, credible case that ReQoL will help clinicians improve patient experience.

Secondly, what goes hand in hand with the above, is making ReQol relevant to patient experience. It’s easy to generate lots of data, though the NHS hasn’t always been good in the past of making sense of it. 

It’s another mission entirely – but one that’s absolutely essential – to generate data that enables patients, families and clinical teams to measure change. If we can’t measure change and the impact of the interventions we are providing, how do we know that what we are doing makes a difference to people’s lives? 

Data visualisation (another arguably naff bit of jargon) is one way we are looking at how we can give people information in a clear, accessible, meaningful way that helps them with their recovery. This involves a shift in mindset from the notion of collecting data about patients to doing so for and with them.