Research project

No data about us without us: co-designing the integration of health inequalities into the National Inpatient Experience Survey

The National Inpatient Experience Survey is a survey that gives people who have been in hospital in Ireland the opportunity to describe the positive and negative aspects of their hospital stay. The survey results are used to develop plans for improving hospital care. However, participation is lower among marginalised communities. The survey also cannot tell us if people from marginalised communities experience better or worse care in hospital.

The aim of this project is to help people from marginalised communities and staff who collect or use data from the National Inpatient Experience Survey to work together through a co-designed initiative to:

• improve information gathering about experiences of inequality in hospital care.
• increase the number of people from marginalised communities who take part in the survey.

Who is conducting this research?

The Principal Investigator is Dr Chris Noone from the University of Galway, and the Lead Knowledge User from the Health Information and Quality Authority is Dr Conor Foley. Over the course of the project, research will be carried out by Dr David Healy. The project is funded by the Health Research Board Applied Partnership Award, which means that researchers work collaboratively on a project to benefit the health service in Ireland. A steering group and patient and public involvement advisory group were established to ensure relevant stakeholders are part of key decision-making processes throughout the project.

Community partners who have joined the project steering group to date include; COPE Galway, LGBT Ireland, Galway City Community Network, and the Patient Advocacy Service. Our institutional partners include the Health Service Executive, the Department of Health and Picker Institute Europe. The current steering group is presented below.

Why are we doing this research?

The World Health Organization describes health inequalities as “differences in health status or in the distribution of health resources between different population groups, arising from the social conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age”. Marginalised communities are more likely to experience health inequalities and without adequate data on health inequalities in hospital care, the HSE cannot develop plans to address them and meet the needs of those communities. It is therefore essential to ensure marginalised communities can share their experiences of inpatient care and for these experiences to be considered in the future planning of care.

Project outline

Work package 1: Conceptualising health inequalities in patient experience surveys.

Work package 2: Understanding experiences of inequality in public acute healthcare among members of marginalised communities.

Work package 3: Co-designing strategies for enhancing the sensitivity of the National Inpatient Experience Survey to health inequalities in public acute healthcare.

Project Outputs

No outputs to report to date.