PICKER INSTITUTE INC. MISSION AND FAQs

What is the mission of Picker Institute?
Picker Institute sponsors research and education in the fields of patient-centered care to support and cooperate with educational institutions and other interested entities and persons. Picker Institute’s mission is to foster a broader understanding of the theoretical and practical changes needed to facilitate a more patient-centered approach to healthcare, with a focus on the concerns of patients and other healthcare consumers.

Predicated on the understanding that Picker Institute is a world leader focusing on the measurement of the patient experience, and that the institute is recognized as an important source of information, advice and support, the Board of Directors of Picker Institute Inc. support the advancement of the science through a variety of programs, awards and related research, each of which focuses entirely on fostering a continued improvement in healthcare from the patient’s perspective.

What are the Picker Surveys?
In 1987, with support from Picker Institute, researchers at the Harvard Medical School set out to find out what healthcare issues mattered most to patients and their families, and how these findings could improve the delivery of healthcare services. Seven years of academic research and 8,000 interviews revealed—for the first time—what was most important to patients and their families in their interaction with the healthcare system. With additional support from The Commonwealth Fund in New York and Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, the Picker  Surveys came into being.

Researchers had suspected, and later confirmed, that simply adopting the tools then in place were not helpful in measuring the patient experience and its relation to healthcare outcomes. They theorized that the tools and programs available at the time too often approached the issue from an institutional mindset and failed to collect from patients the data that was most important. Accordingly, they pioneered the use of carefully designed instruments to obtain detailed information on patient experiences. Instead of asking patients to provide simple satisfaction ratings, researchers asked patients whether or not certain processes and events had occurred during the course of a specific episode of care. Following extensive study to find out what patients thought about the way they were treated and what the problems were from their point of view, researchers designed questionnaires, the Picker Surveys, to focus on specific dimensions of the patient experience.

The Picker Surveys have become the world standard for measuring performance “through the patient’s eyes.” The Picker family of patient-experience surveys is used in quality-driven organizations throughout the United States,* the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland.

* * *In 2001, NRC Picker (also known as National Research Corporation), a for-profit survey company, acquired from Picker Institute Inc. the rights to use Picker Surveys (worldwide, excluding Europe) for the production, marketing and sale of survey-based satisfaction/performance measurement analysis and tracking services and products for the health care industry. Picker Institute Inc. and NRC Picker are not affiliated entities.

Where are Picker Surveys available?
Picker Surveys are internationally available in the UK and throughout Europe through Picker Institute Europe. For Picker Surveys in the United States and Canada, please contact National Research Corporation.