Patient experience and what we do with your feedback
What is patient experience?
Patient Experience is about what it is like for a patient (or their relative / carer) to receive care. This covers:
- What a patient experiences. E.g. How a member of staff communicates; Getting timely access to appointments; Easy access to information
- How that made them feel. E.g Did they feel treated with dignity and respect? Did they feel they were spoken to in a sensitive way?
How do we collect feedback?
At Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust we routinely collect feedback in several ways from patients, relatives and carers which provides valuable information to assess the quality of our services and identify things that require improvement. These include:
- The NHS Friends and Family Test
- National patient experience surveys
- Local patient experience surveys
- Compliments, complaints and concerns
Feedback is also picked up through other means such as:
- Graffiti boards
- Thank you cards
- Healthwatch reports
We also have a Patient Experience and Caring Group. Monthly meetings are chaired by the Deputy Chief Nurse and the group is responsible for making sure that the patient voice is central to the Trust’s business and that there are arrangements in place to collect, understand and use feedback about our services.
The National Friends and Family Test
This is a national initiative which is used in the following services:
- Inpatient / daycase
- Maternity
- Community
- Accident & emergency, and:
- Outpatients
It involves answering just one question: How likely are you to recommend our services to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?
Answers range from extremely likely to extremely unlikely and it also gives the opportunity to provide comments about what went well and what can be improved.
The results are shared monthly both nationally and with our Trust colleagues.
Find out more by clicking the image below.
Electronic Feedback (from April 2020)
From April 2020, patients will be able to leave their feedback electronically.
Click here to tell us what you think about the quality of your care.
Other national patient experience surveys
National patient experience surveys
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) survey people who have used our services, and publish the latest reports on their website.
Adult Inpatient survey https://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RWY/survey/3
Maternity survey https://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RWY/survey/5
Children and Young People https://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RWY/survey/14#undefined
Emergency department https://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RWY/survey/4
Local patient experience surveys
The main local survey used by the Trust is called PRASE (Patient Reporting and Action for a Safe Environment)
This survey was developed by Yorkshire & Humber Improvement Academy and surveys are carried out by trained volunteers at ward level.
This approach enables patients to provide anonymised feedback (positive and negative) on the safety and quality of care experienced during their ward stay.
The questions are linked to 8 safety domains:
· Communication and teamwork
· organisation and care planning
· access to resources
· the ward environment
· information flow
· staff roles and responsibilities
· staff training
· delays
Your experience in your words
One of our core behaviours expected of all staff is ‘we put the patient first’.
It is extremely rewarding for our colleagues to see the comments which are regularly received from patients, relatives and carers regularly telling us about the excellent service they receive.
Here is just a sample of what patients are saying:
"Staff excellent and cheerful and do everything to help you get well and on your feet again".
"The overall package on this ward has been outstanding - that includes everyone, not just the nursing staff"
"My consultation and care have been second to none. A true representation of service and NHS values. Your approach has been superb"
"Pain kept at bay with prompt medication, well maintained ward, hardworking staff who ensure it runs well"
"Every member of staff was kind and funny. Went over and above to help, no matter what. It was like I was with friends, which made me feel better"
You said, we did...what we've done based on feedback
- Introduced an interactive app to help reduce anxieties for children coming into hospital using a story telling approach about what to expect
- Use of a board in our Emergency Department to explain the journey through the department
- Involvement of a relative to support end of life care training events
- Changes to community transport to avoid lengthy journeys for patients
- Development of a "You and your medicines" leaflet for use at the point of discharge
- Worked with Healthwatch to help them understand how patients book appointments and attend outpatients following the implementation of our electronic patient record
- We've started making changes to some of our traditional outpatient clinics. Our 20-20 project is working on virtual clinics and patients receiving results by telephone.
- Improvements to the food provision in response to feedback– homemade soups at both lunch and evening meals; and the installation of a blast chiller to prevent dried up food
- We've started a Dementia pop-up cafe
- Running a surgery school for patients prior to colorectal surgery
- Introduction of bereavement cards, offering condolence and the opportunity to discuss any questions
- Use of secret shoppers (two of whom have physical disabilities) to test out facilities and the environment in the Endoscopy units
