The PaRIS Project is an international survey with participating countries assessing the outcomes and experiences of patients with chronic conditions managed in primary care.
What is the PaRIS Project?
The PaRIS (Patient-Reported Indicator Surveys) Project is an OECD initiative being carried out in more than 20 countries across the world. It is the largest international survey of people living with chronic conditions.
The results of this survey will give patients an opportunity to speak about their experiences and provide useful information for policy makers allocating spending and to health care providers looking to improve the level of care they provide to people with chronic conditions.
FAQs
We have provided answers to some of the common questions PaRIS Project participants may have about the survey.
The PaRIS Project is being conducted by WentWest on behalf of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) and the Australian Government Department of Health. It is part of an international survey led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Find out more about the Commission and WentWest and about the survey.
The PaRIS project has three phases: a development phase, a field trial and the implementation of the main survey. We are now working on the field trial and the main survey will be carried out in 2023. The aim of the field trial is to inform how the main survey will be carried out in Australia.
Patient organisations, providers, and academics from over 20 countries collaborated to develop the survey. An international consortium (the PaRIS SUR consortium) supported the development and implementation. The PaRIS SUR consortium is comprised of:
- NIVEL, the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, (Consortium Leader), Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Ipsos MORI, London, United Kingdom
- University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
- Avedis Donabedian Institute, Barcelona, Spain
- OptiMedis AG, Hamburg, Germany
Ipsos MORI is the consortium partner that will be collecting the survey information and analysing it.
The aim of this survey is to improve health care for you, your family and community and to help health systems better understand how patients feel about their care. This study will include patients and health care providers in many countries so we will be able to compare different health care systems across the world and learn from each other.
In Australia, we plan to use this survey to help health care providers improve their care in line with what their patients want. The PaRIS project is an avenue for you to have your voice heard and it may eventually help shape the way your care is delivered in the future.
You have been invited to participate in this survey because you were randomly selected from the list of patients in this general practice with at least one chronic condition. Your contribution will help us understand how you feel about your care and if there is a need for further improvement.
The survey asks questions about your experience of care and treatment provided by your GP practice. In addition, there are some questions about you and your health.
You can participate in this survey by completing the questions online before 30 July 2022. The study will ask about your experience with your GP practice and ask about the outcomes that you as a patient value most.
Participation in this survey is voluntary. You can stop at any time and can skip over any questions you do not want to answer. Please be assured, whether or not you choose to take part, it will not affect the care you receive in any way. We do hope that you will complete the survey, as this will give us the best possible picture of people’s experiences.
Your answers are put together and analysed with the answers from other people. Your answers are not linked to your name, address or any other personal identifiers and will be kept confidential. Data from the field trial will not be published but it will be used to inform how the main survey will be carried out in Australia.
There may be other surveys asking about similar things, but they are not the PaRIS Project. We would be grateful if you could take the time to fill this survey in and return it to us.
Answering the questions, including any demographic questions in the ‘about yourself’ section, is completely voluntary. This means you don’t have to answer them all. However, we hope you will, as this will give us the best possible picture of people’s experiences.
No, the survey for the field trial is only available in English.
If you have lost your login details, please send an email to PaRIS@wentwest.com.au with your request and we will email these back to you.
In addition, you will receive a reminder letter, email or text. Your survey number will be printed on the first page of the letter. For text messages and emails, a unique link, with log-in details will be included which will allow you to take part online without needing to enter your survey number or password.
Yes, when filling in your answers online your progress saves automatically. You can close the browser window whenever you like, and your progress will be saved. When you’re ready to continue filling in your answers, return to the survey login page
Simply log in with your survey number, and you’ll be returned to where you left off.
Please note, that while your responses save automatically, unless you press the ‘submit’ button at the end of the questions, your responses will not be sent through to us.
Yes, that’s fine. If you need help filling in the questionnaire, you can ask someone to help you. Please note that the answers should be about your experience only.
Yes, that’s fine. If someone needs your help in filling in the survey, you can offer to help. However, the answers should be about their experience only.
WentWest also has a helpline for participants who have problems filling in the questionnaire. Please call the helpdesk on (02) 8811 7117 between the hours of 8:30am and 5pm, Monday to Friday. Alternatively, they can email PaRIS@wentwest.com.au.
WentWest is working with selected supplier organisations to run the survey. We will need to share your contact details with these supplier organisations for that purpose. These supplier organisations include Professional Print Management.
WentWest will not share your contact details to any third party but will use it for sending the survey link and for follow up purposes.
All personal information will be kept confidential by Ipsos MORI and WentWest. Nobody will be able to identify you in any published results. Ipsos MORI and WentWest will securely remove your personal data from its systems by July 2025.
For more information, about your privacy rights and accessing, amending and deleting your data, go to the full Privacy Policy.
Some online surveys collect information through the use of ‘cookies’. These are small files stored on your computer. These files are used as sparingly as possible and only for quality control and validation. They also prevent us sending you reminders for an online survey you have already completed. It is possible for you to delete ‘cookies’ or to prevent their use by changing the browser settings on your computer.
Ipsos MORI may also automatically capture information about your operating system, display settings and browser type, including the IP address, in order to ensure that the survey questionnaire is delivered in a form suited to the software your computer is using. Ipsos MORI do not capture any other information from your computer.
Your GP Practice has shared a limited amount of your personal data with WentWest so that you could be invited to take part in this research. This data is:
- Your name and address
- Gender and month/year of birth
- When you last visited your primary care provider
You have been sent this questionnaire by WentWest on behalf of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. Names were chosen at random.
We will keep your data confidential and will use your contact details only to invite you to take part in the survey and if necessary, to remind you about the invitation to participate. Once the survey is finished, we will securely destroy your contact details.
WentWest will only hold your data in a way that can identify you for as long as is necessary to support the research project and findings. This means that once we have reported the anonymous findings in an acceptable way, we will securely remove your personal identifying data from our systems and those of our suppliers.
For this study, we will securely remove your personal data from our systems by July 2025.
No, we do not have access to participant’s health information. In order to invite patients to take part in the survey, contact details and a limited amount of information about you (e.g., your age and gender), may need to be accessed from patient registration records to check the survey results have been received from a cross-section of the population in your area.
In addition, to ensure the survey is relevant, we may identify whether a patient has had an appointment in the last six months. We have received no information about your health – this remains confidential between you and your GP.
You have been invited to take part because you were randomly selected from the list of patients in this general practice with at least one chronic condition. Your contribution will help us understand how you feel about your care and the need for further improvement.
Your GP practice is aware that the survey is happening. After the study has been completed, they will have access to the anonymous, statistical results for their practice. Your GP will not know if you choose to participate and will not have access to your individual answers.
Your name will not be attributed or attached to the information collected in this survey. Instead, a number code has been assigned to each person participating in the survey. Staff at the GP practice you go to will not know if you have taken part in the survey and will not have access to your answers.
The number code will also ensure that when the results are analysed, we have the correct data for each practice. This is also used to identify callers to the helpline and to reduce the need to send reminders to patients who have responded to the survey. This number is only known to key members of the Ipsos MORI and WentWest survey team and is removed from the survey responses during analysis to ensure that all responses are completely anonymous.
If you have specific questions or complaints about your health care provider, please contact your practice directly. WentWest cannot help you with any questions or complaints you may have about your health care provider outside of the PaRIS study.
If you have any queries or need any help filling out the survey, please contact the WentWest helpdesk on (02) 8811 7117 or by email at PaRIS@wentwest.com.au.