Associations between patient experience and clinical outcomes in substance use disorder clinics: Findings from the veterans outcomes assessment survey

Background: Patient-centeredness is a cornerstone of substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. Patient-experience measures are potential tools for the routine assessment of patient-centered SUD care and may be valuable measures to inform quality monitoring improvement efforts. Little research exists on the predictive validity of patient-experience measures in SUD care. Purpose: We report on findings from the Veterans Outcome Assessment (VOA) survey that provides information on Veterans Health Administration SUD specialty care at treatment initiation and approximately 3-months post initiation. Methods: The VOA includes patient-reported outcomes across multiple domains, including the Brief Addiction Monitor (BAM-R), the Short-Form-12 (SF-12) and the Experience of Care and Health Outcome Survey (ECHO), and provides patient reports of the quality of provider communication and overall quality of SUD care. Results: Nearly 40% of veterans in SUD care gave the highest possible ratings for communication and quality at both baseline and follow-up. Ratings of communication at 3-months were associated with treatment discontinuation and both ratings of communication and quality at 3-months and were independently associated with SUD symptoms and with mental well-being at 3-months. Conclusions: This study provides preliminary support for the inclusion of patient experience measures, particularly ratings of provider communication, as part of routine assessment in SUD care. However, further work on the validity of ratings of provider communication using additional methodologies is likely important before piloting the inclusion of such measures in routine assessment, such as in measurement base care.