Patient Reported Outcome and Experience Measures (PROMs and PREMs) in substance use disorder treatment services: A scoping review

Abstract

Background: Substance use disorders (SUD) pose significant challenges for healthcare systems, and there is a need to monitor the provision of effective, individualized care to persons accessing treatment. Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) and Patient-Reported Experience Measures (PREMs) are increasingly used in healthcare services to measure treatment outcomes and quality of care as perceived by patients, and to guide service improvement.

Objectives: This review aims to identify and characterize international developments regarding the use and systematic implementation of PROMs and PREMs in SUD treatment services.

Methods: A scoping review was conducted searching multiple databases to identify studies on the use and routine implementation of PROMs and PREMs in SUD treatment services.

Results: 23 articles were selected, all dating from 2016 onwards. There was large variation in the patient-reported measures that were used, how they were developed and how and when patient-reported data were collected. Treatment providers identified leadership support, the presence of an integrated electronic patient record, and regular feedback to be the most important facilitators of successful implementation of patient-reported measures into clinical practice, whilst treatment dropout and burden to staff and patients were the most important barriers to consider.

Conclusions: PROMs and PREMs are increasingly used in SUD treatment services, but guidance is needed to support researchers and clinicians in selecting and implementing valid, meaningful, and comparable measures if we want to understand the effects of PROM and PREM data collection and feedback on treatment quality and results.

Keywords: Patient-reported experience measures; Patient-reported outcome measures; Substance use disorder treatment services.