title: Prospective cohort study protocol to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Quality of Trauma Care Patient-Reported Experience Measure (QTAC-PREM).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patient-centeredness is a key component of health care quality. However, patient-centered measures of quality have not been developed in injury care. In response to this challenge, we developed the Quality of Trauma Adult Care Patient-Reported Experience Measure (QTAC-PREM) to measure injured patient experiences with trauma care and pilot-tested the instrument at a single Level 1 trauma centre. The objective of this study is to test the reliability, validity, and feasibility of the QTAC-PREM in multiple Canadian trauma centers and to refine the measure based on the results.
  
  
  METHODS
  This will be a prospective cohort study of consecutive adult (age ≥ 18 years) patients discharged from three trauma centres in Alberta, Canada with a primary diagnosis of injury. The target sample size is 400 participants to ensure precision for evaluating test-retest reliability. We will assess the psychometric properties of the measure (test-retest reliability, construct validity, internal consistency) and whether these properties vary by patient characteristics. We will also evaluate the predictive validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the measure against other established tools (HCAHPS).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A reliable and valid measure of patient reported experiences with injury care may be a valuable tool to evaluate quality of care and guide improvement efforts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 4Z6, Canada.
authors.forename: Niklas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bobrovitz
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Santana
authors.forename: Theresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kline
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kortbeek
authors.forename: Henry T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Stelfox
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000416:Alberta; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011594:Psychometrics; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D014193:Trauma Centers; D055815:Young Adult