Objectives: To undertake an assessment of the association between coproduction and satisfaction with decisions made for local healthcare communities.
Design: A coproduction scale was developed and tested to measure individual National Health Service (NHS) commissioners' satisfaction with commissioning decisions.
Setting: 11 English Primary Care Trusts in 2010-2011.
Participants: Staff employed at NHS band 7 or above involved in commissioning decisions in the NHS. 345/440 (78%) of participants completed part of all of the survey.
Main outcome measure: Reliability and validity of a coproduction scale were assessed using a correlation-based principal component analysis model with direct oblimin rotation. Multilevel modelling was used to predict decision satisfaction.
Results: The analysis revealed that coproduction consisted of three principal components: productive discussion, information and dealing with uncertainty. Higher decision satisfaction was associated with smaller decisions, more productive discussion, decisions where information was readily available to use and those where decision-making tools were more often used.
Conclusions: The research indicated that coproduction may be an important factor for satisfaction with decision-making in the commissioning of healthcare services.
Keywords: Health Policy; Health Services Administration & Management; Health Services Commissioning; Health Services Management; Healthcare Decision Making.
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