The Patient Experiences Questionnaire for Out-of-Hours Care (PEQ-OHC): data quality, reliability, and validity

Figures & data

Table I. Respondent characteristics.

Variable	n (%)	Adults > 16 yrs n (%)	Parents/guardians of children < 16 yrs of age (%)	Carers (%)
	225	148 (65.78)	53 (23.56)	16 (7.01)
Type of contact
Telephone only	20 (9.43)	12 (8.57)	3 (5.88)	5 (33.33)
Telephone and consultation visit	125 (58.96)	84 (60.00)	32 (62.75)	5 (33.33)
Consultation visit only	63 (29.72)	42 (30.00)	16 (31.37)	3 (20.00)
Telephone and home visit	4 (1.89)	2 (1.43)	–	2 (13.33)
Referred by out-of-hours centre to GP
No	146 (66.67)	92 (63.89)	37 (69.81)	12 (75.00)
Yes	73 (33.33)	52 (36.11)	16 (30.19)	4 (25.00)
Sex of respondent
Female	157 (71.69)	98 (66.67)	47 (88.68)	10 (62.50)
Male	62 (28.31)	49 (33.33)	6 (11.32)	6 (37.50)
Mean (SD) age of respondent	45.52 (18.64)	47.41 (19.64)	34.73 (7.11)	60.00 (17.44)
Mean (SD) age of patient	–	–	5.21 (5.03)	63.08 (26.96)

Table II. Missing data, PCA loadings¹ and internal consistency for the PEQ-OHC (n = 225).

Questionnaire/scale	Missing %	Component 1	Component 2	Component 3	Component 4	Cronbach's alpha/Item-total correlation
Telephone contact	7.6					0.91
Cared for you	11.7		0.70			–
Took you seriously	7.6		0.82			0.82
Was interested in your problem	7.6		0.83			0.83
Had enough time for you	9.7		0.86			–
Was understandable	7.6		0.65			0.76
Was competent	11.4		0.71			0.78
Doctor contact	6.4					0.90
Cared for you	6.9	0.85	(0.80)			–
Took you seriously	6.4	0.87	(0.91)			0.82
Was interested in your problem	8.0	0.89	(0.87)			0.83
Had enough time for you	6.4	0.86	(0.59)	(0.64)		–
Was understandable	6.9	0.83	(0.62)			0.73
Was competent	6.9	0.89	(0.71)			0.75
Information – problem	1.6	0.73	(0.67)			–
Unanswered questions	3.7				0.80	–
Nurse contact^2	0					0.93
Cared for you	0.7	(0.91)		0.83		0.85
Took you seriously	1.4	(0.79)		0.84		0.89
Was interested in your problem	0.7	(0.86)		0.84		–
Had enough time for you	0	(0.86)		0.84		–
Was understandable	0.7	(0.72)		0.78		0.78
Was competent	0.7	(0.84)		0.84		0.87
Organization	2.7					0.82
Information – waiting time	5.3		0.56		(0.86)	0.70
Waiting time acceptable	3.7		0.62		(0.75)	0.71
Centre well organized	3.2		0.55	(0.54)		0.66
Waiting area satisfactory	4.3		0.58	(0.73)		–

Notes: ¹Component loadings not in parentheses represent the component loadings for the PCA of users who had both a telephone contact and a consultation at the out-of-hours centre (n = 125). Component loadings in parentheses represent the component loadings for the PCA of users who had a consultation at the out-of-hours centre irrespective of whether they had telephone contact beforehand (n = 188). Items relating to telephone contact were not included in the latter PCA; ²45 of the 188 users who attended the out-of-hours centres did not see a nurse and hence omitted this section of the questionnaire.

Table III. Mean (SD) PEQ-OHC scores¹ and correlations² with aspects of healthcare process and global ratings (n = 225).

Questionnaire/scale	n (%)	Telephone contact	Nursing services	Doctor services	Organization
Difficult to contact by telephone		−0.35™
Not at all	99 (68.28)	84.34 (14.79)
To a small extent	31 (21.38)	74.26 (13.39)
To some extent	11 (7.58)	76.70 (12.84)
To a large extent	2 (1.38)	65.63 (4.42)
To a very large extent	2 (1.38)	23.95 (25.04)
Referred to GP
No	102 (61.45)		83.72 (16.75)*	83.21 (17.17)	67.79 (25.63)*
Yes	64 (44.14)		76.84 (15.97)	79.06 (18.43)	58.46 (23.76)
Time taken to get to service			−0.06	−0.17**	−0.23**
Under ½ hour	126 (65.28)		81.86 (17.87)	83.56 (17.52)	68.02 (24.05)
½ – 1 hour	46 (23.83)		82.12 (16.71)	80.54 (16.63)	66.03 (25.09)
1 – 2 hours	10 (5.18)		83.56 (14.33)	71.53 (19.29)	46.67 (30.48)
2 – 4 hours	10 (5.18)		78.13 (5.59)	76.88 (19.78)	38.33 (18.92)
> 4 hours	1 (0.52)		56.25 −	75.00 −	25.00 −
Waiting time for treatment			−0.29**	−0.17*	−0.68**
< 10 min	56 (29.17)		88.33 (14.08)	86.79 (17.23)	86.76 (15.31)
10 – 30 min	65 (33.85)		80.72 (16.68)	80.41 (17.18)	67.24 (17.37)
30 – 60 min	31 (16.45)		80.53 (16.04)	80.42 (18.03)	52.82 (22.50)
1 – 2 hours	22 (11.46)		74.26 (21.22)	76.19 (19.83)	39.77 (25.45)
2 – 3 hours	13 (6.77)		73.30 (13.14)	84.62 (9.75)	39.74 (15.27)
> 3 hours	5 (2.60)		73.75 (27.39)	77.50 (22.36)	35.00 (28.50)
Enough information on test results			0.50**	0.52**	0.50**
Not at all	7 (4.70)		63.89 (22.73)	75.00 (32.17)	27.38 (14.20)
To a small extent	12 (8.05)		68.06 (9.08)	71.88 (10.15)	48.61 (19.73)
To some extent	19 (12.75)		71.43 (14.85)	68.75 (18.93)	53.95 (22.29)
To a large extent	69 (46.31)		78.13 (16.81)	80.19 (16.05)	62.80 (24.90)
To a very large extent	42 (28.19)		91.94 (13.23)	94.69 (13.62)	80.56 (21.91)
Overall satisfaction with service		0.64**	0.64**	0.73**	0.59**
Not at all	4 (2.06)	44.79 (29.09)	44.79 (19.15)	31.25 (00.00)	16.67 (22.05)
To a small extent	5 (2.58)	75.00 (17.68)	63.75 (14.92)	55.83 (10.56)	41.67 (31.18)
To some extent	22 (11.34)	71.88 (11.56)	68.75 (17.68)	61.61 (18.15)	40.34 (19.81)
To a large extent	94 (48.45)	75.44 (12.89)	75.61 (12.59)	78.75 (12.56)	60.24 (21.40)
To a very large extent	69 (35.57)	94.24 (9.26)	94.06 (11.36)	95.86 (8.48)	82.25 (18.79)
Overall experience with service		0.44**	0.44**	0.50**	0.42**
Much worse than expected	3 (1.55)	34.72 (25.71)	47.92 (14.73)	46.88 (22.10)	5.56 (4815)
Somewhat worse than expected	17 (8.81)	73.66 (14.54)	63.54 (20.96)	56.51 (14.47)	39.22 (25.65)
As expected	101 (52.33)	78.16 (13.92)	79.96 (13.44)	80.92 (16.20)	63.57 (22.05)
Somewhat better than expected	39 (20.21)	84.91 (14.22)	83.06 (17.47)	86.02 (13.59)	67.63 (24.55)
Much better than expected	33 (17.10)	93.75 (10.83)	93.32 (11.93)	94.70 (9.13)	83.08 (17.86)
Extent of any poor treatment		−0.43**	−0.37**	−0.45**	−0.36**
Not at all	148 (79.14)	84.75 (14.55)	85.29 (14.80)	86.59 (14.15)	69.93 (23.26)
To a small extent	21 (11.23)	72.74 (16.12)	68.52 (16.17)	75.37 (13.16)	51.19 (30.08)
To some extent	12 (6.42)	66.15 (20.89)	69.32 (15.17)	59.47 (17.29)	43.18 (21.67)
To a large extent	3 (1.60)	70.83 (7.22)	43.75 (17.68)	60.42 (25.26)	27.78 (12.73)
To a very large extent	3 (1.60)	53.47 (10.69)	100.00 −	43.75 (16.68)	16.67 (11.79)

Notes: ¹The four PEQ-OHC scales are scored from 0-100 where 100 is the best possible experience of care. ²Spearman's rho is shown alongside variable names for the categorical variables. Binary variables were tested with the t-test. Asterisks refer to statistical significance: *p < 0.05;**p < 0.01.