French National programme to measure patient satisfaction and experience: e-Satis - Methodological guide

The national satisfaction measurement programme – e-Satis – produces the first outcome indicators derived from a patient evaluation of the services provided and covering all French healthcare institutions. They supplement the indicators derived from an evaluation by professionals.

By responding to e-Satis questionnaires, patients can express their level of satisfaction and share their experience at each stage of their care pathway, from their admittance into the institution to their discharge. The satisfaction score produced by HAS on the quality of the care (one of the scores derived from e-Satis), is calculated on the basis of some ten questions concerning aspects such as the ability to listen, the support provided, respect for privacy, confidentiality, communication, the relief of pain, and other events that can occur during a hospital stay and which the patient is best able to assess.

The purpose of the methodological guide is to describe the key stages in the development and scientific validation conducted by HAS to produce a healthcare quality and safety indicator based on the patients' point of view. The document does not provide a detailed account of the technical implementation of the programme – stages of the technical development of the e-Satis platform with ATIH (the Technical Agency for Information on Hospital Care), management and follow-up of a nation-wide survey conducted on an ongoing basis, compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation.

The methodology described is generic and reproducible for the future questionnaire developments planned in the national e-Satis programme.