Bon Secours: giving patients a voice

Healthcare as we know it has changed. The paternalistic model of yesteryear is being replaced by a system that – quite rightly – puts the patient at its centre.

The patient is the end consumer, and as with any enterprise consumer feedback is critical to ensure the best experience is being offered to those who avail of services.

Maeve Goggin, quality and risk manager at Bon Secours Cork, explains that its patient engagement strategy is a critical element of ensuring it is providing a quality service.

“Quality is central to everything, but it’s hard to assess that without understanding it from the patient’s perspective. Unless you ask for the patient’s perception of their experience you will not know how it has affected them. This is hugely important to us.”

A central tenet of the patient engagement strategy is the collection of patient feedback. Since the beginning of last year every patient over 16 years of age attending one of the five Bon Secours hospitals is invited to participate in a patient survey on admission. Shortly following discharge they receive an email or SMS message asking them to complete a brief online survey.

“Patients are more motivated to give feedback if they’ve had a very positive experience or if they’re unhappy with something – with this approach you are getting a broader response rate because you are giving them the opportunity to give feedback rather than just waiting for them to actively engage,” Goggin says.

Almost a third of patients who passed through the system last year chose to participate, and feedback was overwhelmingly positive. For example, 97 per cent of patients said they were treated with kindness and understanding, while 98 per cent said they had been treated with dignity and respect.

Feedback

According to Goggin, it is crucial that staff are involved in this process, and she says they are all made aware of the feedback received.

“The comments that are really important to us are the ones that reflect the values of the Bon Secours, in particular the compassion and quality of care. It’s so important to feed this back to staff.”

Longer term, the patient engagement strategy allows the hospital group to focus its efforts on enhancing its activity and developing new initiatives. It also hopes to continue this work by collecting patient data on clinical outcomes.

“It has been hugely important for us in terms of our ongoing improvement. It allows us to really appreciate what is working well from a patient’s perspective, what needs to improve and the patient’s experience of these improvement initiatives.” says Goggin.

“Patients are our key driver in terms of our services, and this has meant a significant change in the way we do things. This has given patients a voice.”