Patient Experience Strategy - UHS

1 Patient Experience Strategy December 2012 December 2016. 1. Putting the Patient first it's in our DNA . Introduction & Background to the Strategy patients tell us that good hospital care depends on getting the basics right. It is important to patients to receive good nutrition and hydration, to feel safe and cared for, to have care provided in clean and pleasant environments, and to feel trust and confidence in those caring for them. With over 10,000 Patient episodes every month, our goals for providing a high quality, consistently positive Patient Experience may be ambitious but they are essential. Our highest priority is to provide care, treatment and facilities to meet the fundamental needs of patients , relatives and carers who use our services. We are determined to build on the success of delivering the previous Patient Experience Strategy over the last 3 years. We believe a high quality care environment and appropriate support is a key part of the healing process, and this needs to be underpinned with clear standards for care.

2 In this document, the reader will find the trust's Strategy for improving Patient Experience has been refreshed and updated. The revised Strategy sets out the trust's vision and goals for improving Patient Experience over the next four years (2012 to 2016). The Strategy is aimed at adults, children, young people and women and their partners accessing maternity services. Our Values In 2011, the trust developed a new set of values which underpin everything we do. They are currently being launched trust wide. The values are: patients First Working Fresh Thinking together patients and families lie at the Our clinical, technical and We incorporate new ideas, heart of everything we do. Their support staff are all technologies and greater Experience of the hospital, and crucial to providing efficiencies in the services we their perceptions of the trust, are successful services. We provide. We value research our measures of success. work together for and education as drivers of maximum effect, and future innovation and collaborate to make development, and also internal boundaries recognise our individual The Patient Experience Strategy invisible to patients .

3 Responsibilities for 2012-2016 improvement. We aim to make these values what we do' and who we are' - in essence they are to become our DNA; they building blocks of our organisation. They help us to inspire, develop and support every staff member to live the values for every Patient , every colleague, every day. These values are about us all helping each other to deliver great Patient Experience more consistently involving people who use our services, their families, carers, staff and partners in continuing to improve the Experience people have using and delivering our services. This Strategy provides us with a detailed blueprint of how we are putting patients First . We know we have not yet achieved our goal of providing a positive Patient Experience for everyone who accesses our services; but we want to change our culture; the way we do things and increasingly be able to say that our healthcare professionals, managers and staff work in true partnership with patients , family and carers in delivering the best healthcare possible.

4 2. Our Staff Our staff are our biggest asset. We understand that in order to deliver a good Patient Experience , we also have to ensure a positive staff Experience . Many of the themes in this Strategy apply directly to staff as well as patients , and are detailed in our human resource policies and strategies. Defining Patient Experience Currently, there are several definitions of Patient Experience which reflect that patients are very clear about what makes a good and poor Experience . A positive Patient Experience is defined by the Department of Health as: Getting good treatment in a comfortable, caring and safe environment, delivered in a calm and reassuring way; having information to make choices, to feel confident and feel in control;. being talked to and listened to as an equal and being treated with honesty, respect and dignity . (DoH, 2009). It is a moral and human imperative to protect people when they are sick, weak and vulnerable.

5 This Strategy sets out our intentions to improve Patient Experience across all trust departments and specialties over the next 4 years. It includes newborns, babies, children, young people, adults and older people in short, every Patient , relative and carer who comes into contact with our services will be impacted by the goals laid out in this Strategy . We therefore want people who use our services to Experience care and treatment which is: Welcoming Dignified Kind Respectful Gentle Safe Personal Compassionate Informative Sensitive Comforting Understanding Caring Helpful Reassuring Supportive Why Improve Patient Experience ? Goodrich and Cornwall (2008) set out the case for why it is necessary to have a clear Strategy for improving Patient Experience , in terms of clinical outcomes and the success of the organisation: Improving Patient Experience makes good sense for patients because: The reduction of anxiety and fear can speed the healing process and shorten Patient 's length of stay and decrease their acuity levels The provision of information reduces post operative complications Good communication/information enables people to (self) manage their illnesses more effectively Effective communication improves treatment and medications compliance Improving Patient Experience makes good business sense because.

6 patients are increasingly using the internet to rate their Experience , affecting organisational reputations The NHS choice programme has expanded under the Liberating the NHS reform programme (DoH 2012), further empowering patients to choose services perceived to provide the best care and treatment 3. Hospitals suffer financial penalties when the quality of care is poor A positive Patient Experience affects staff Experience and can impact on recruitment and retention Poor staff- Patient communication can lead to higher litigation costs Providing a good Patient Experience ensures organisations meet their statutory and regulatory obligations This Strategy has been developed within the context of a number of key reports, regulatory requirements and legislation. A summary of these can be found in appendix A. In 2012, both the Department of Health and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) published core documents which include national standards for Patient Experience , and a DoH framework for Patient Experience (appendices D and E refer).

7 This Strategy incorporates all elements of both of these documents as well as those required in the NHS constitution and regulatory standards. What do patients , family & carers want & need? Patient views backed by research, tell us that in addition to receiving the best possible treatment, patients want and expect: A safe and clean environment To be treated as individuals, with dignity and respect for their culture, lifestyles and beliefs To have their voice heard, to be valued for their knowledge and skills and to be able to exercise real choice about treatments and services To receive detailed high quality written and/or verbal information about their condition and possible treatment, given in an honest, timely and sensitive manner at all stages of the Patient pathway To know what options are available to them under the NHS, voluntary and independent sectors, including access to self-help and support groups, complementary therapy services and other information To know that they will undergo only those interventions for which they have given informed consent To have good face-to-face communication with health and social care professionals To know that services will be well co-ordinated To know that their physical symptoms will be managed in a way that is acceptable to them & is consistent with their clinical situation & clinicians' current expertise To receive emotional support from professionals who are prepared to listen to them and are capable of understanding their concerns To receive support and advice on financial and employment issues To know their beliefs and values will be respected and supported through appropriate spiritual care To receive support to enable them to explore spiritual issues To receive care at the end of life that meets their individual preferences and needs 4.

8 To be assured that their family and carers will be supported throughout the illness and in bereavement To be cared for in an environment where there are sufficient, well trained staff to meet their needs. Our approach to improving Patient Experience patients First We put patients , their individual needs and those of their family and carers at the heart of everything we do. We seek to adapt our hierarchies, systems, processes and behaviours in order to put patients first. We have taken a 4-stranded approach to ensuring a positive Patient Experience . From these 4 aspects of Patient Experience , the routes of ALL of our beliefs, vision, priorities and work streams can be found. We want our Strategy for improving Patient Experience to be memorable to patients and staff alike, and believe that having a simple model will help. Respect We recognise that patients are individuals who deserve respect, dignity and personalised care and treatment.

9 We treat them as equals, and seek to meet their diverse needs. Listen We listen to patients , family and carers and aim to provide as much choice as possible. We involve them in all aspects of their care and treatment, and support them to take informed decisions and to ensure we have their full consent. Inform We keep patients , family and carers fully informed via appropriate communication methods. We aim to provide good continuity of care and communicate effectively with other health and social care providers at the point of admission, discharge and transfer. Care We support patients in meeting their fundamental care needs both in their activities of living and of dying. These needs are met through the provision of good nutrition, hydration safety from harm, freedom from pain and provision of care in an environment that allows for their healing or which facilitates a peaceful and dignified death. 5. Each of the 4 strands of our approach to improving Patient Experience includes a number of work streams which have emerged following Patient feedback and learning from complaints and patients ' stories of where things have not gone as well as we would have liked.

10 These are Our model for improving Patient Experience 6. How our work streams will deliver improved Patient experiences in 2013 - 2014: Respect: Milestones for 2013/14. Providing excellent Delivery of a customer care training programme to outpatient staff with customer care subsequent roll out to other wards and departments. Compassionate care Implementing values based recruitment and selection processes. Privacy & dignity Refreshing the privacy signs on bed curtains and developing a policy for chaperoning. Same sex Continued delivery of the 2012/13 same sex accommodation milestone accommodation plan (see trust website for details). Equality & Diversity Delivering the actions to ensure compliance with the NHS Equality Delivery Scheme by April 2013. Transforming UHS Launch of a new work programme to embed the trust's values and Culture identify/translate these values into behaviours for all staff. Vulnerable Adults Delivering the plan for safeguarding adults, including revising training approaches, updating the mental capacity policy and undertaking root cause investigations on all safeguarding alerts.