Patient Experience Survey Results – June 2016
- For a three week period starting on 8th June 2016, a survey was conducted in relation to patient experiences within the hospital.
- A questionnaire was distributed to women on admission to the prenatal, postnatal or gynaecology wards and the women were asked to complete it prior to discharge.
- 218 questionnaires were returned. There were 1,053 women discharged during that timeframe.
- Of the 218 respondents, 72.7% were attending as public patients, 14.3% private and 13.0% semi-private.
Results
- Responses from the women participating in this survey were in the main very positive. Some of the many positive aspects included when asked if, overall, the patients were satisfied with the service they received, 98.2% ticked the box for ‘Yes’.
- When invited to indicate whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement “I had confidence in the staff providing my care”, 97.7% chose either the ‘Strongly agree’ or ‘Agree’ options.
- For the statement “The information given by members of my healthcare team was easy to understand”, 98.2% chose ‘Strongly agree’ or ‘Agree’, with the figure being 98.6% for “I was always treated with dignity and respect”; 98.5% for “I trusted the members of my healthcare team” and 98.6% for “I would recommend this hospital to a friend or family member”.
Rate the hospital facilities
- The respondents were asked to rate the Hospital facilities under five headings with five multiple-choice options available – ‘Very good’, ‘Good’, ‘Poor’, ‘Very poor’ and ‘Not relevant’.
- The rating for adequacy of public toilets showed a small change compared to the last survey, as the percentage rating this facility as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ has decreased from 8.5% to 8.4%. In addition, 99.6% of patients indicated that the overall cleanliness of the hospital was ‘Good’ or ‘Very good’.
- The issue of inadequate parking facilities was highlighted once again – see Table 1.
| Table 1 |
Very Good |
Good | Poor |
Very Poor |
Not Relevant |
| Contacting hospital by phone | 52.6% | 34.4% | 4.7% | 1.4% | 7.0% |
| Availability of parking facilities | 18.3% | 29.6% | 32.9% | 13.1% | 6.1% |
| Adequacy of public toilets | 37.1% | 51.6% | 7.5% | 0.9% | 2.8% |
| Ease of finding way (signage) | 47.4% | 48.8% | 3.3% | 0.5% | 0.0% |
| Overall cleanliness of hospital | 63.6% | 36.0% | 0.5% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Improvement in Food and Catering
- In relation to the meals the patients received, the questionnaire enquired as to whether they had been asked if they had any special dietary requirements. 61.5% responded ‘Yes’, 28.4% ‘No’ and 10.1% indicated that they ‘Can’t remember’ .
- When asked if they were satisfied with the meals they received, 73.8% (notably up from 68.3%) indicated ‘Yes, always’; 23.8% ‘Yes, sometimes’ [down from 29.2%] and 2.3% ‘No’ [previously 2.5%]
- When asked to indicate their level of agreement with the statement “The food I received was of a high quality”, the percentage that either ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘agreed’ was 89.4%, up from 87.6% in the previous survey.
Comments and suggestions
The final question on the survey consisted of a section in which respondents were asked to provide comments relating to their recent experience of The Rotunda Hospital or make suggestions on how the hospital could improve the services it provides. These comments were split into categories depending on the nature of the remark.
There were 44 positive comments regarding the staff, care and services provided in the Rotunda.
There were 37 comments identifying areas for improvement:
- 4 relating to communication and information
- 17 regarding facilities, accommodation and food
- 2 pertaining to staff attitude and manner
- 14 concerning safe and effective care
Areas for action
The draft report was reviewed by the Quality and Safety Committee and the following areas were identified for priority action:
1. Continue efforts to improve pain management practices:
- Undertake a postpartum analgesia point prevalence study six monthly to assess pain relief provided and satisfaction with the medication prescribed
- Form a multidisciplinary pain management team to oversee postpartum analgesia practices
- Agree mechanism to distribute the information leaflet on postpartum pain management on discharge
2. Midwifery and nursing staffing levels – recruitment efforts will
continue to recruit the additional midwifery and nursing staff
required to address current staffing deficits.
3. Improve staff communication with patients – the Improving the
Patient Experience training programme will be continued so that
all frontline staff can undertake the programme.
4. Review bathroom facilities to ensure that hooks and shelves are in
place for patient clothes and equipment.
5. Assess the possibility of supplying a spray for the additional cleaning
of toilet seats before/after use.
6. The catering staff will continue to review and enhance the service
they provide by:
- Introducing new information cards to inform patients of the importance of informing staff of any food allergies or special dietary requirements/requests
- Working with the dietitians to improve food options for women requiring diabetic diet
- Developing new menu designs so that patients are aware of all the food options available
Conclusion
Overall, the responses are very similar to previous survey findings.
Chart 1 shows the trend of the percentage of respondents indicating a rating of ‘Very good’ for overall hospital cleanliness over previous surveys, with the five new ‘patient experience survey’ values marked in red. This shows a slight increase since the last patient survey carried out in May 2014.
An important measure is the number of patients that would recommend the Rotunda Hospital to a friend, and any trends in this variable are worthy of note. The question asked in the initial nine patient satisfaction surveys was “Would you recommend the Rotunda Hospital to a friend?” with the two options of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’.
The patient experience survey asks patients to indicate their agreement or otherwise with the statement “I would recommend the Rotunda Hospital to a friend or family member”. Combining the figures for the ‘Strongly agree’ and ‘Agree’ options yields a figure of 97.9% and along with the previous PES results, is highlighted in red in Chart 2.
The next survey is scheduled for summer 2017.