Overview - A Case Study on NHS Satisfaction Surveys

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust was formed on 1st April 1998 following the merger of Crawley, Horsham and East Surrey NHS Trusts. It provides over 400,000 treatments each year across eastern Surrey and north-west Sussex.

Its major site is East Surrey Hospital and it also provides a range of services at Crawley, Dorking, Caterham Dene and Horsham hospitals in partnership with the Primary Care Trusts which own and manage those sites.

Situation

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust needs to gather information from a broad cross section of patients to construct a Patient Experience Report for various forums using NHS Satisfaction Surveys. There were limited large-scale opportunities for the patients, carers and service users to feedback their opinions to the Trust in real-time to support them in making informed choices.

Commissioners and providers need a robust, systematic basis for judging where to focus their quality improvement efforts. Comments Vikki Carruth, Deputy Director of Nursing: “In order for the Trust to increase its measurement of patient experience it needs to be sure that it is measuring what patients find important. This is critical if the whole process is to deliver meaningful improvements that contribute to increasing public confidence.”

A strategic approach was required that identified the tools and technologies required in order for the Trust to collect high levels of accurate patient feedback, which in turn would drive service quality improvements.

Solution

Implementation of CRT’s ViewPoint RCS - NHS Satisfaction and Survey Patient Feedback System.

Utilising touch screen technology within their facilities, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust is now enjoying the benefits of an end-to-end real time patient feedback system which is improving the patient experience and resulting in operational efficiencies such as saving staff time.

The ViewPoint Research Control Suite implementation included a training workshop with delegates from various clinical areas in attendance. This ensured a common approach to system utilisation, enabling best practice and maximum value from this important investment.

The patients’ experience is now being tracked, results analysed and multi-level reports focussed on agreed areas for improvement.

CRT continues to work closely with Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust to develop NHS Satisfaction Surveys and associated reporting, enabling further quality improvements.

Examples of Service Improvements

• Changes are made specifically for certain services or locations depending on the opinions of users of those specific services or locations.
• Patient Experience Reports are now available on a more frequent basis, allowing commissioners to continually assess levels of patient satisfaction. This information is shared with all staff and is also available to patients, via a public facing webpage.

"The facility provided by CRT ViewPoint was identified as one which offered the total solution to the research capability that the Trust was looking for in relation to patient feedback. The flexibility of survey design was particularly important, as we did not want to be tied to a small number of pre-set questions. Patient representatives have been involved in survey design which we feel is very important in ensuring we involve and engage our patients."
Vikki Carruth, Deputy Director of Nursing

Benefits

• Service quality improvements are being enabled through real-time patient feedback and action planning
• Budgetary savings are significant when compared to previous survey methodologies
• Self completion technology means that patients are not influenced and therefore give honest feedback
• Staff have no distractions and are released to focus on care provision
• Significantly higher response rates have improved both feedback accuracy and actionable results