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

Background and objectiveProviding relevant quality information on public report cards can inform the consumer choice ofhealthcare providers. However, it is unclear what information people without expert knowledgeneed when searching for a long-term care facility. The present review aimed to summarize existingfindings on people’s information preferences and provide a basis for the design of public reportcards.MethodologyThis study is a systematic-narrative hybrid literature review. A literature search of PubMed andScienceDirect was conducted for articles published between 2001 and 2022. Studies that referred tolong-term care and included participants who were uninstitutionalized people over 65 years or theirrepresentatives were eligible; participants expressed their preferences in own words and had noprofessional experience in searching for a facility. Studies concerning acute care or end-of-life carefacilities and studies where participants had to assess predefined preferences were excluded. Thepreferences stated in interviews were extracted in the exact format they occurred in the resultstables in the studies and analyzed using a hybrid data synthesis strategy. First, doing a thematicanalysis, preferences were grouped inductively into categories across the studies to show whatinformation people desire. Second, in the deductive approach, preferences were assigned toDonabedian’s structure-process-outcome domains to show what information should be included onpublic report cards.ResultsOut of 27,197 articles identified in the period of the past 20 years, only a Belgian study and a USstudy were eligible. Three essential preferences dimensions with nine information types wereidentified. People want to be able to get own impression about a facility (e.g., information types likeliving, place, support), to learn about external evaluations (e.g., experiences, inspections) and toassess the realizability of their potential choice (e.g., affordability). The deductive approach showedhow the nine information types are spread across the structure-process-outcome domains.ConclusionThis review provided important insights into consumers’ perspective. The tree dimensions with nineinformation 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 shouldbe substantially supplemented by the information identified in this review.