VPSM Survey Process

The VPSM survey is a self-completion questionnaire.Since August 2009 patients have had the option of completing the surveys online. If hard-copy surveys are returned, the data is put into electronic form. Additional de-identified details are sought from the Department of Heath (using the identifier code). The Department has no personal patient details. Data is analysed and individual hospital reports are produced every six months. At the conclusion of each twelve month period of data collection, the statewide annual report is produced and made publicly available.

The VPSM survey is a self-completion questionnaire.

VPSM Survey (PDF File 484KB)

VPSM Maternity Module Survey (PDF File 87KB)

The Questionnaire contains 24 questions, including three which are free text.
The remaining 21 questions (some comprising sub-questions) ask patients about particular parts of their hospital experience.  For example:

• Waiting time
• The helpfulness of hospital staff in general
• The way staff involved you in decisions about your care
• How well the purposes of medicines were explained to you
• The cleanliness of the toilets and showers
• The quality of food overall
• Did the hospital staff encourage your feedback?
• The arrangement made by the hospital for any services you needed when you got home.

Many of the single questions are grouped to form the survey’s sub-indices, each of which focuses on a specific part of the patient experience:

• Access and Admission
• General Patient Information
• Treatment and Related Information
• Complaints Management
• Physical Environment
• Discharge and Follow-up

For each sub index, there are also related questions.

An Overall Care Index is derived from the six sub indices. The VPSM uses the Overall Care Index as its global measure of patient satisfaction. This measure is reported for each hospital in the annual report

The following diagram shows the VPSM indices structure:

In addition to the VPSM indices, the survey also includes the Consumer Participation Indicator  (CPI) which is part of the Department of Human Service’s Doing it with us not for us (2006) participation policy. The CPI provides an account of patient self-assessed participation in their health care.

The three CPI statements are:

• The opportunity to ask questions about your condition or treatment
• The way staff involved you in decisions about your care
• The willingness of hospital staff to listen to your health care problems

Hospitals are required to report to the Department on the standard o ‘health care and treatment’ and if ‘improvements have been achieved over time’ as measured by the CPI index.