AHRQ wants more feedback on pediatric care

HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality seeks tools to help the government more accurately measure families' experiences with inpatient pediatric care.

According to a notice published in the Federal Register, accepted submissions, such as survey items and measurement domains, will eventually be compiled into a standardized instrument to be used in pediatric quality reporting. Also, researchers at the Children's Hospital Boston Center of Excellence for Pediatric Quality Measurement, who are developing the survey, plan to submit it for inclusion in AHRQ's Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, a patient-experience measurement program.

"The survey development team is looking for items for which families of pediatric inpatients are generally the best or only judge; for example, the family can best say if the provider spent sufficient time with them or explained things in ways they could understand," according to the notice. "Existing instruments that have been tested should have a high degree of reliability and validity; and evidence of wide use will be helpful."

The deadline for submissions is Jan. 30, 2012.