Background NHS health policy emphasises the crucial role of patient experience as a core component of high quality care, alongside effectiveness and safety. Patient Reported Experience Measures (PREMs) measure patients' experiences with their healthcare. They are increasingly being seen as valuable for assessing patient outcomes and differences in quality between health care providers.

Previous patient surveys to assess ambulance service care have not been implemented routinely or in a standardised way. This research forms part of a doctoral study to develop a PREM for use in UK ambulance services.

Methods The study comprised three subsections:

1. A secondary analysis of interview data exploring patients' experiences of their prehospital care.

2. Development of questionnaire items based on those themes emerging from the secondary analysis.

3. Semi-structured interviews with service users that explore their opinions of the questionnaire items and whether the PREM includes all aspects of the ambulance service experience that should be encompassed.

Results The secondary data analysis revealed specific ‘processes of importance’ to service users accessing ambulance care i.e. ‘timeliness’ and parallel ‘experiential components of care’ i.e. ‘reassurance’ that either enhanced or reduced the perception that the ‘processes of care’ were undertaken to a high standard.

The key themes formed the foundation for generating the 53 item questionnaire. The interview stage is on-going and the data obtained are being used to amend the questionnaire items.

Conclusions The construction of the PREM has incorporated the views of patients that the measure is ultimately designed for, and conforms to the concept of patient-centred care—the theoretical foundation of the research.

Once completed, the PREM will enable ambulance trusts to measure differences in patient experiences, between and within organisations. This can result in positive changes to patient experience through the introduction of feedback, training and education to prehospital clinicians.