Survey Development and Validation

Over the past several years, accreditors like The Joint Commission and funders like the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have moved to require validated tools for clinical assessments. In the near future, a validated tool for assessment of patient experience will also be required.

Through a rigorous process, NRI has established standards for survey development and validation for inpatient psychiatric care. Our Inpatient Consumer Survey (ICS)has been endorsed by the National Quality Forum (NQF) as “Best in Class” for quality improvement. Eighty psychiatric facilities currently participate in national benchmarking with NRI.

For example, many psychiatric hospitals require validated instruments for assessing unhealthy alcohol use. The SUB-1: Alcohol Use Screening measure, developed by The Joint Commission and required by CMS, assesses the number of adult patients screened for alcohol use. While both organizations have provided lists of screening tools, many psychiatric hospitals work with a population with alcohol dependence or abuse, requiring a tool that meets this level of clinical need. Psychiatric hospitals choosing a tool validated for other populations or having a process that has not been rigorously tested can turn to NRI for survey development and validation services.

Thus, our expert statisticians can help you determine a survey’s reliability and validity for your client population. Analysis of the survey’s sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value will test the validity and the performance of the scale. These factors become critically important when the survey was initially designed for a different client population and you need objective evidence to support your use of the survey.

Our survey development and validation testing services include:

• Determining the populations for which the tool has been validated
• Developing sampling strategies for testing with inpatient psychiatric care
• Developing data requirements for survey validity testing
• Offering training for survey implementation, data collection, and reporting
• Conducting reliability and validity testing
• Preparing a report of findings for a hospital’s quality initiatives
• Preparing a report on the validity of a tool for inpatient psychiatric care
• Collaboration in the dissemination of findings

NRI’s vast network of psychiatric hospitals provides an unparalleled opportunity for networking and promotion. Meet the mandates while optimizing the tools for the clinical and operational needs of your program. NRI can also provide survey design, testing, and implementation analyses to convert your local processes into validated tools.

Please contact us at [email protected].