Plain English Summary
Background and study aims
People use the internet to access customer reviews and ratings. Sharing personal experiences on Facebook or Twitter is becoming a part of everyday life. Increasingly, people are going online to give feedback on their experience of the NHS, or to read the feedback that other people have provided. There are websites which invite feedback on doctors or hospitals, and some people choose to tell their NHS stories in personal blogs or discussion forums like Mumsnet. This research is part of a wider study funded by the NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research designed to help the NHS to interpret and act on online patient feedback to improve the quality of NHS services. This study conducts case studies in four NHS Trusts in England using observations, interviews and focus groups to see how staff relates to online sources of patient feedback in terms of their awareness and attitude. These case studies will help to understand how staff use patients online feedback, the barriers and facilitators to using feedback to improve NHS quality and what skills are required to benefit from the feedback. The aim of this study is to understand what the challenges might be in encouraging the appropriate use of this in the NHS.
Who can participate?
Adults who are employed by the NHS.
What does the study involve?
Participants are asked to either attend a one hour focus group, face to face interviews, or will be observed at work over a six week study period to explore the use of online feedback and how this can be used in improving NHS services.
What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
There are no notable benefits or risks with participating.
Where is the study run from?
This study is being run from the University of Oxford and takes place in four NHS trusts (UK).
When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
April 2016 to October 2017
Who is funding the study?
National Institute of Health Research (UK)
Who is the main contact?
Professor John Powell (Scientific)
Ms Vanessa Eade (Public)
Trial website
Contact information
Type
Public
Primary contact
Ms Vanessa Eade
ORCID ID
Contact details
Health Experiences Research Group
Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences
Radcliffe Observatory Quarter
Woodstock Road
Oxford
OX2 6GG
United Kingdom
Type
Scientific
Additional contact
Prof John Powell
ORCID ID
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1456-4857
Contact details
Health Experiences Research Group
Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences
Radcliffe Observatory Quarter
Woodstock Road
Oxford
OX2 6GG
United Kingdom
Additional identifiers
EudraCT number
ClinicalTrials.gov number
Protocol/serial number
30642
Study information
Scientific title
The INQUIRE Project: Improving NHS Quality Using Internet Ratings and Experiences
Acronym
INQUIRE
Study hypothesis
The aim of this study is to examine how online feedback is currently viewed in four NHS case study sites, how online feedback shapes, gets contested and/or mobilised in everyday practices in hospitals, and to explore the potential barriers and facilitators to the use of online patient feedback by NHS staff and organisations.
Ethics approval
University of Oxford Medical Sciences Inter-Divisional Research Ethics Committee, 03/02/16, ref: R32336/RE001
Study design
Observational case series
Primary study design
Observational
Secondary study design
Case series
Trial setting
Hospitals
Trial type
Treatment
Patient information sheet
Not available in web format, please use the contact details below to request a patient information sheet
Condition
Health services and delivery research
Intervention
The INQUIRE study is part of a wider programme of work consisting of five interlinked projects of applied health service research.
This study uses in-depth case studies (including ethnographic observations, interviews and documentary analysis) carried out in four NHS secondary care provider organisations. The case studies take an ethnographic approach, using mixed methods including face-to-face interviews, observations of meetings, focus groups, documentary analysis, and researcher’s field notes.
Participants will either attend a staff focus group or staff interviews. The staff focus groups include a one hour group discussion to explore the use of online commentary. Up to 2 focus groups may be held in each participating NHS Trust. Focus groups last no longer than one hour and will comprise up to 8 staff members. The interviews (done either as a one off or intermittently) are done with staff working at all levels of the organisation and focuses on capturing the views of managers and those working in quality improvement and complaints handling on online feedback (approximately 10 staff interviews will be done per Trust).
Also, observational work is done within each participating study sites during the six week study period. This requires the researcher to work in situ adopting fieldwork role to facilitate the close examination of the day-to-day practices involved in processing user generated comment. Multiple observations will take place and will be recorded by the researcher in field notes collected for later analysis. In addition the researcher will collect relevant documents such as local policy documents.
Data (in the form of field note descriptions, documents and interview/focus group recordings) is analysed through thematic analysis and comparative case study analysis.
Intervention type
Other
Phase
Drug names
Primary outcome measures
Staff views about organisational practices in online feedback is measured through staff focus groups, interviews and observations throughout the study period.
Secondary outcome measures
There are no secondary outcomes for this study.
Overall trial start date
12/04/2016
Overall trial end date
31/10/2017
Reason abandoned
Eligibility
Participant inclusion criteria
Staff who work at the participating NHS Trusts.
Participant type
Health professional
Age group
Adult
Gender
Both
Target number of participants
Planned Sample Size: 72; UK Sample Size: 72
Participant exclusion criteria
Participants that do not fulfil the inclusion criteria.
Recruitment start date
30/10/2016
Recruitment end date
30/04/2017
Locations
Countries of recruitment
United Kingdom
Trial participating centre
University of Oxford
Clinical Trials and Research Governance, Joint Research Office
Block 60, Churchill Hospital
Headington
Oxford
OX3 7LE
United Kingdom
Funders
Funder type
Government
Funder name
National Institute for Health Research
Alternative name(s)
NIHR
Funding Body Type
government organisation
Funding Body Subtype
Federal/National Government
Location
United Kingdom
Results and Publications
Publication and dissemination plan
These summaries will be disseminated via the project website, www.inquireuk.org and on the Improving Health Care section of the www.healthtalk.org website as part of the ‘toolkit’ training resource for NHS organisations. Results will be disseminated through peer reviewed journals, as well as conference presentations in the disciplines of health policy, e-health, medical sociology and the sociology of science and technology. More general, untargeted, offline dissemination towards these lay, practitioner, and policy audiences, through media coverage in the general press, practitioner journals, and the Health Service and Delivery Research journal will be done.
IPD sharing statement:
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not expected to be made available due to confidentiality reasons.
Intention to publish date
31/10/2018
Participant level data
Not expected to be available
Results - basic reporting
Publication summary