Kast K (2025)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Other publication type
Publication year: 2025
Background and objective
Providing relevant quality information on public report cards can inform the consumer choice of healthcare providers. However, it is unclear what information people without expert knowledge need when searching for a long-term care facility. The present review aimed to summarize existing findings on people’s information preferences and provide a basis for the design of public report cards.
Methodology
This study is a systematic-narrative hybrid literature review. A literature search of PubMed and ScienceDirect was conducted for articles published between 2001 and 2022. Studies that referred to long-term care and included participants who were uninstitutionalized people over 65 years or their representatives were eligible; participants expressed their preferences in own words and had no professional experience in searching for a facility. Studies concerning acute care or end-of-life care facilities and studies where participants had to assess predefined preferences were excluded. The preferences stated in interviews were extracted in the exact format they occurred in the results tables in the studies and analyzed using a hybrid data synthesis strategy. First, doing a thematic analysis, preferences were grouped inductively into categories across the studies to show what information people desire. Second, in the deductive approach, preferences were assigned to Donabedian’s structure-process-outcome domains to show what information should be included on public report cards.
Results
Out of 27,197 articles identified in the period of the past 20 years, only a Belgian study and a US study were eligible. Three essential preferences dimensions with nine information types were identified. People want to be able to get own impression about a facility (e.g., information types like living, place, support), to learn about external evaluations (e.g., experiences, inspections) and to assess the realizability of their potential choice (e.g., affordability). The deductive approach showed how the nine information types are spread across the structure-process-outcome domains.
Conclusion
This review provided important insights into consumers’ perspective. The tree dimensions with nine information types show that people want to be able to assess the whole situation that awaits them, when they search for a “new home”. To be helpful for consumers, current public report cards should be substantially supplemented by the information identified in this review.
APA:
Kast, K. (2025). What do people really want to know when searching for a long-term care facility? A systematic-narrative hybrid literature review of stated consumer information preferences for public reporting.
MLA:
Kast, Kristina. What do people really want to know when searching for a long-term care facility? A systematic-narrative hybrid literature review of stated consumer information preferences for public reporting. 2025.
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