Patients’ experience at Barts Health hospitals is improving
Patients’ experience in Barts Health hospitals is getting better, according to a survey published today by the regulator of NHS care.
Patients reported improvement compared with last year’s findings in nearly half of the questions asked in the Care Quality Commission (CQC) annual survey of inpatient experience.
Despite this progress, there is still significant room for improvement, prompting the Trust to develop action plans to target areas such as consistently providing patients with support emotionally and for their arrangements for discharge, as well as making sure all staff offer the same standard of experience regardless of their role.
Barts Health Chief Nurse, Caroline Alexander, said:
"We are pleased our patients have told us their experience in our hospitals is improving. It’s encouraging that scores increased in nearly half of the questions asked and I’d like to thank our staff for their efforts. However, we still have a great deal to do to consistently offer the experience our patients rightly expect. That’s why improving our patients’ experience is one of our top priorities in the year ahead."
The report showed Barts Health hospitals performed better than other Trusts undertaking the same survey when it comes to asking patients to give their views on the care they’ve received, and minimising noise at night time.
Leaders from the Trust’s five hospitals came together last month to take stock of the findings and agree action plans for improvement.
Since the survey was conducted in July 2017 the Trust has:
- Had its overall quality rating upgraded by inspectors
- Launched a new system to capture feedback from patients online and via text messaging, which will provide feedback and opportunities to improve care in real time.
- Equipped its staff with a smartphone app to help them audit some of the basic requirements of a patient’s stay, such as regularly receiving enough to drink.
- Embarked on an innovative research project to understand how customer experience in high-end restaurants could help improve patients’ satisfaction.
- Designed and delivered a bespoke programme for patients and staff to collaborate together in planning the future of the hospitals’ services through Trust Wide Collaborative Clinical Boards.