The development of indicator measure for monitoring the quality of patient-centered care in China's tertiary hospitals.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a set of structure and process indicators to evaluate tertiary hospitals' performance in the Healthcare Improvement Initiative, a national program with a goal to improve quality of patient-centered care.

METHODS: A modified Delphi technique, including literature review, multidisciplinary panel meeting and anonymous rating, was used to generate a set of indicators. A practice test involving both general and special hospitals was conducted to ensure the feasibility of data collection for these indicators.

RESULTS: 62 indicators were generated by literature review. The panel review procedure involving 39 panelists with diverse backgrounds resulted in a total of 59 indicators, which included 40 qualitative indicators and 19 quantitative indicators. In the practice test, six quantitative indicators were found unfeasible. According to the suggestion of the experts in the hospital evaluation committee, three of those indicators were kept by adjusting their data collection methods, while other three ones were discarded.

DISCUSSION: A set of 56 structure and process indicators was developed to evaluate hospitals' performance in the implementation of the Healthcare Improvement Initiative, which could be used in both general and special tertiary hospitals. Results of the indicator measurement could present a panorama of the quality of patient-centered care in tertiary hospitals nation-wide, and inform health administrators of the ways to attain the goal of the Initiative.