The patient experience: Patient characteristic differences in response.
144 Background: Understanding and addressing patient experience (PX) is an integral part of oncology care. The Press Ganey Outpatient Oncology instrument is used to better understand PX and performance differences at a large ambulatory oncology center. We investigated select patient characteristics of response among all eligible patients, the surveyed sample, and survey respondents. Methods: Over a six month period at a large ambulatory oncology center, 26,660 patients were eligible to report their PX. 11% of patients were identified following the center’s sampling criteria, of which Press Ganey applied their sampling strategy. Thus, 2,857 patients were randomly selected and sent the survey instrument, of which 828 patients responded. Patient characteristics of the three cohorts were compared across the center and by disease center. Results: Surveyed patients were a representative sample of eligible patients, as surveyed patients were of similar age (NS), gender (NS), education level (NS), and primary insurer (NS). In some dimensions, responders were not a representative sample of eligible/surveyed patients. Respondents were slightly older (p < 0.001), more often male (NS), more college educated (NS), and more frequently had a primary insurance of Medicare (p < 0.001). Similar population differences continued among eligible, surveyed and responders, in further comparisons by disease center. Conclusions: Population based sampling allowed the opportunity to investigate accuracy of the sampling strategy and the ability to identify a representative sample of patients across the oncology center. A comparison across the oncology center and disease centers revealed we cannot assume respondents are similar to the eligible and surveyed populations, thus we caution all assumptions made with unadjusted PX comparisons. Further research allows the opportunity to continuously update/improve the sampling strategy and administer electronic surveys to identify a more representative sample better positioned for future quality improvement opportunities. [Table: see text]