COMMENT
Editor LOUISE FRAMPTON
louiseframpton@stepcomms.com
Contributing Editor SUZANNE CALLANDER
Technical Editor KATE WOODHEAD
Business Manager Online CHRIS VINCENT
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Publisher GEOFF KING
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Publishing Director JOSH TAYLOR
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Journal Administration KATE PHILLIPS
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Design RAY ECCLESTONE DAVE WOODALL
THE CLINICAL SERVICES JOURNAL is published in January, February, March, April, May, June, August, September, October and November by Step Communications Ltd, Step House, North Farm Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 3DR, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1892 779999 Fax: +44 (0)1892 616177 Email:
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Delivering patient centred services
The health service has been tasked with delivering more ‘patient centred’ care – embracing a culture of respect and dignity, while ensuring it adheres to the mantra of: ‘no decision about me, without me’. Given the high level support for this cultural shift, healthcare organisations can no longer afford to be complacent about the quality of their patients’ experiences. The emphasis, today, is on ‘choice’ and ‘patient satisfaction’ – with patients
now rating hospitals online, using the NHS Choices website. Indeed, new research suggests that patient reviews may correspond with a hospital’s wider performance on outcomes (p14). Hospitals with better patient ratings tend to have lower mortality rates, for example. Dr Felix Greaves, from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, who led the study, suggests that such patient feedback may be more valuable than previously thought, adding that “the crowd of patients appears to be wise”. While the NHS hospital ratings show there is room for improvement, it is
worth noting that the majority of the feedback on the NHS Choices is positive, with 68% of respondents reporting that they would recommend their hospital to friends. There has also been positive feedback to the latest outpatients’ survey from
the Care Quality Commission. The survey shows that there has been an increase, since the last survey in 2009, in the proportion of patients seen on time or early for their appointment. Overall the results show significant improvements in a number of aspects of patients’ experiences, such as feeling that: they were better involved in decisions about their care, treated with respect and dignity, given adequate explanations for the reasons for treatment and offered answers to their questions that they were able to understand. Ruth Evans, director of the Patient Experience Network (PEN), discusses
the issue of patient experience in this latest edition of CSJ (p42). She points out that there is much ambiguity over what is meant by, and what can be done to deliver, a ‘world class patient experience’. High profile reports have provided detailed and shocking insights into
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examples of poor patient care – where compassion, dignity and respect have been lacking. But what constitutes a good patient experience? Where can healthcare teams seek inspiration from their peers? Sharing examples of best practice is crucial to drive continuous
improvement, as Ruth Evans points out, and the PEN National Awards aims to shine a light on the excellent work underway in improving patient experience. What the award winners demonstrate is that ‘best practice’ is often about ‘going back to basics’. Sometimes, it is not necessary to innovate – the simple things make a difference.
LOUISE FRAMPTON Editor
MARCH 2012
THE CLINICAL SERVICES JOURNAL
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