TY - JOUR T1 - The accident and emergency department questionnaire: a measure for patients’ experiences in the accident and emergency department—reply JF - BMJ Quality & Safety JO - BMJ Qual Saf SP - 787 LP - 788 DO - 10.1136/bmjqs-2012-001750 VL - 22 IS - 9 AU - Nanne Bos AU - Steve Sizmur AU - Chris Graham AU - Henk F van Stel Y1 - 2013/09/01 UR - http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/22/9/787.1.abstract N2 - With this letter we respond to the comments of Chance et al on our recent publication ‘Patient Experience in the Accident and Emergency Department’. We applied three different methods of grouping and summarised the items on the Accident and Emergency (A&E) department questionnaire presented to patients. The best score reliability was provided by the Principal Components Analysis. Chance et al acknowledge the importance of patients’ feedback but questioned whether this measure of patients’ experiences is valuable and valid for comparisons of the quality of care services, and whether selection bias affected the results. The purpose of our research was to examine alternative ways of obtaining a reliable composite, but we do not negate the important information from separate questions. Single questionnaire items are less reliable than well-constructed composites,1 but are able … ER -