Dr Foster Intelligence | Using PET in secondary care

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Using PET in secondary care

Acute hospital trusts are currently using PET to capture as many patient responses as possible. PET can be used across all sites in inpatient and outpatient wards. The device can be free-standing in a convenient area for patients to give feedback any time of the day, or nurses/volunteers can take it to a patient's bedside.

How PET is currently used in secondary care...

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The Trust wanted to examine on a large scale patients’ views of their experience of care within the Trust. To do this the Trust needed to use a means that was both user-friendly and almost instantaneous so that it could monitor and improve service delivery, tailor it for patients and respond in a timely fashion.

In order to direct service delivery as speedily as possible, the Trust needed a measure of patient experience at the point of health care delivery. From July 2008, the Trust has introduced 39 Patient Experience Trackers (PETs) to complement its Quality Improvement Strategy.

Download the full case study here.

The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust

The Trust wanted to proactively understand and measure their patients' views on the quality of care received. This could not be achieved on a real-time basis using traditional paper-based methods.

PET was purchased to act as a catalyst for engaging patients in keeping with the ethos of their approach – 'Being with patients'. This is part of the Trust's Patient Experience Strategy 2008-2011. The project is constructed in four phases over 12 months. The first phase started in April 2009 focussing on maximising the use of PET for inpatient surveys and A&E. The aim is for the next national inpatient survey to show improved performance in selected areas.

Download the full case study here.

Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

The Trust wanted to communicate with hard to reach patients in order to improve services where applicable. Previous methods of surveying patients had proved limited, with large groups being missed.

The Trust then began using Dr Foster Intelligence's Patient Experience Tracker (PET) in order to reach patient groups that had proved difficult to engage with in the past. The system allows easy access to patients' concerns, enabling the Trust to respond rapidly.

In just three months, PET captured 1,567 patient responses in comparison to only 325 yielded by the national inpatient survey run by the Picker Institute. The Trust aims to achieve a 75 per cent response rate from patients using services where PET is available. The improved channels of communication have raised the levels of trust and understanding between staff and patients. Teamwork and intra-trust confidence have increased because of the partnerships formed in implementing and managing the data capture and response systems.

Download the full case study here.

Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

The Trust wanted to maximise the effectiveness of its patient feedback and use it to inform strategic planning and performance management.

During the PET implementation, the Trust experimented with performance targets and decided on a number that manages to both motivate staff and remain an achievable goal. Involvement from all teams at the Trust is sought in identifying areas of improvement.

The regular patient feedback data helps teams learn where they are doing well and where they can improve and have the confidence in the programme to swiftly identify and fix a problem whenever one is identified. PET is also being used as a tool in the next stage of the Trust's quality improvement plan.

Download the full case study here.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The Trust wanted to gain patient feedback in an innovative way, reaching as many patients and members of the public as possible to improve the quality of their services.

The Trust decided to purchase Patient Experience Trackers (PETs) in January 2008 to capture real time patient feedback and understand how their patients felt about their care.

Over 6,000 patient responses were captured in 2008. Patient feedback data was presented to the relevant teams weekly and reported to the board monthly. Comments are also published bi-monthly to members and staff via newsletters to show the Trust is listening and improving services based on patient feedback.

Download the full case study here.

University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust

The Trust wanted to measure real-time patient feedback as part of their three-year Patient and Public Involvement Strategy and use it to make informed decisions to improve service delivery.

The Trust began using the Patient Experience Tracker (PET) in July 2008 to look at how satisfied their patients were upon discharge and in the inpatients units, enabling investigation of problem areas and identifying suitable improvements. The aim was to look at real-time feedback to supplement and act on areas already highlighted from the national inpatient survey.

Within the first three months, more than 1,800 responses were captured using PET and immediate action plans were implemented. A key problem area identified was patient information. Patients felt that they did not receive enough information about their care. As a result the Trust has considerably improved staff-patient communication and are now looking at other areas that have receive mixed results on the patient experience tracker including catering and waiting times.

Download the full case study here.

If you are a PET customer and would like to be part of a case study to share details of how PET has helped you, then please email ashvika.lawton@drfoster.co.uk or call 020 7332 8854.