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Improving the patient experience
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Last modified date:9 April 2008
For many patients, A&E is the first point of contact with the NHS and their experience here can significantly affect how they feel about the quality of care across the NHS as a whole.
We know that the biggest component of patients' A&E experience is how long they have to wait. But we also know that they want to see other improvements - especially better information and more involvement, better facilities for children, friendly and helpful staff, and a cleaner, more pleasant environment.
Some key aims
- To produce measurable improvements in patient satisfaction with their experience of A&E
- To extend the role of modern matrons and other senior nurses in A&E departments to drive up standards - including clean environments, good food and quality care
Work in progress
A lot can be done relatively easily to transform patients' overall experience of A&E, especially if local patients themselves are consulted about what needs to change, and how.
The first national survey of A&E patients has been completed and shows that 85% of patients rated their overall care as either good, very good or excellent. At first glance this is a high score, but it is still the lowest of the four patient surveys published in 2003.
Since then £2 million has been made available to A&E modern matrons to spend on improving patient experience, in consultation with patients themselves. Jonathan Asbridge (ex-Chief Nurse at the Barts and Royal London NHS Trust) has been appointed as the first A&E patients' champion and called modern matrons and senior nurses to their first summit meeting on A&E patient experience in February 2004.
Patient Environment Action Team (PEAT) style inspections have been extended to cover A&E; there are improved communications with A&E staff about good practice; and work to strengthen communications between staff and patients is underway with the publication of a multilingual phrasebook for A&E staff.
Future thinking
More needs to be done to stimulate and support local action. Patient information about the whole emergency care system needs to be improved and simplified, and more work needs to focus on the groups of patients who don't always get a good service now - for example the mentally ill, the old, or some patients from black and minority ethnic groups.
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