Compassionate Care

Compassionate Care

Compassionate Care

 

Includes staff understanding and respect of personal, cultural, social, and religious needs and how staff take time to interact with people who use the service. Do staff raise concerns about disrespectful, discriminatory, or abusive behaviours or attitudes?  

  Looking at what we have completed in the past (yesterday), what we are doing currently (today) and what we plan on doing in the future (tomorrow):

YESTERDAY  

TODAY  

  • The Trust has undertaken patient surveys for several years as a method of obtaining patient feedback. The Patient Survey Programme has always included continuous surveys (for Emergency Services and the Patient transport Service) along with various bespoke survey projects each year                                                                         
  • In addition to the overall satisfaction/Friends and Family Test questions, additional core questions have always been included within patient surveys (e.g., in relation to dignity and respect, privacy, trust, staff attitude, involvement, explanation of treatment and care etc.) Patient surveys have always demonstrated that patients have generally been very satisfied with the service and staff, with patients mostly responding that they were treated with dignity, respect, privacy and compassion with a vast number of compliments always received to this regard.    Patient surveys have always included an Equality and Diversity section in relation to the 9 protected characteristics as standard. This enables the overall satisfaction of the patient to be analysed against the patient demographics to measure patient satisfaction. 
  • Overall satisfaction results were reported monthly, with full survey results reported as patient survey reports which were sent to the service managers and published on the Trust website. Patient survey results were also included as part of the monthly Quality Report and the Trust Annual reports 
  • Triangulation of data with complaints / engagement / patient safety did happen but this was not always consistently undertaken. The Clinical Audit and Patient Experience Group and Learning Group disbanded a few years ago. 
  • The patient experience teams have always regularly spoken to patients with all patient interactions treated sensitively and with empathy. 
  • Patient surveys have always been available to request in different formats (e.g., large print/different language/braille). 
  • Patient survey letters have always signposted the PALS/Complaints team and included a section for patients to pass on a compliment, raise a complaint or to take part in a discovery interview to discuss their experiences in greater detail. 
  • Trust staff have always been actively encouraged to speak up in relation to any disrespectful, discriminatory, or abusive behaviours or attitudes.  
 
  • The Patient Survey Team continue to undertake patient surveys as a method of obtaining patient feedback. The Survey Programme still includes the core surveys and additional, bespoke survey projects (e.g., in relation to Dementia, Young Patients, Mental Health, Safeguarding etc). Bespoke projects are designed in collaboration with the service/clinical leads, external groups/organisations with some questionnaires also co-produced by patients who are 'Experts by Experience.' 
  • Due to COVID-19, the routine undertaking of postal surveys has ceased, however, the core patient surveys are all now available for patients to complete 24/7 on the Trust public website and are signposted using a variety of methods (e.g., patient information cards/via social media and by way of patient invitation to feedback letters which are sent to a random sample of patients each month.  The link to patient surveys is also now included on the patient experience leaflet sent out with all complaint acknowledgement letters.  
  • Core questions such as the overall satisfaction question and questions in relation to dignity/respect/privacy/trust/staff attitude/involvement and explanation of treatment and are still included as survey questions on the continuous surveys, along with an Equality and Diversity section in relation to the 9 protected characteristics.            
  • The patient surveys have been reviewed this year to ensure they are more user friendly. Patient surveys are still available in different formats, and patients can also request a paper version of the survey or complete the survey over the telephone if preferred. However, further work in relation to accessibility/easy read is still required.                                                                         
  • All Managers within the Patient Experience Department have had an active involvement in the recently co-produced Patient Engagement Strategy, with this strategy and the feedback received feeding into the patient experience work streams/plans going forward.  
  • Patient surveys continue to include a section for patients to pass on a compliment, raise a complaint, take part in a discovery interview, to become a patient representative or to suggest a quality improvement.                                    
  •  Survey feedback is continually triangulated with the information received through complaints/incidents/discovery interviews to identify any themes/areas of concern which may require service improvement. A weekly survey submission summary is included within the weekly Quality report. In addition to the weekly survey submission summary, monthly patient experience overall satisfaction figures are also distributed and included as part of the monthly quality report. Patient survey results are written into report form which are then distributed to the service managers to monitor patient satisfaction and identify areas for improvement. Patient survey reports are now published on the Trust and public website using the new accessible template format.              
  • Weekly Patient Experience and Engagement managers meeting to discuss themes/trends and to also keep an updated action log.                                                                                                                                                       
  • Patient feedback through surveys/complaints/engagement is reported as part of the new PEEG dashboard and presented at the bi-monthly PEEG meetings, with any themes discussed and actions agreed.                      
  • Empathy training has been undertaken by the Patient Experience teams, to improve empathy and compassion when communicating with patients/patient representatives to ensure that all patients/their representatives are treated with empathy and compassion and are protected from discrimination, harassment or disadvantage.                        
  • Recent co-production of the Patient Engagement Strategy, this was a huge project undertaken by the Patient Experience and Engagement teams and included numerous sessions and engagement with several patients/publics including patients from harder to reach groups. For example, specific sessions were held with learning disability groups such as Thinklusive and Opening Doors, to offer a supportive environment for participants to share their views. Accessibility has been adopted as one of the 5 key domains in the Interim PPI strategy.  This is the first truly co-produced piece of work to have been undertaken by the Trust with patients/public from start to finish.                                                                              
  • Trust staff continue to be actively encouraged to speak up in relation to any concerns/disrespectful/discriminatory behaviour. Staff also asked to complete the Pulse and staff surveys, with specific staff surveys undertaken this year in relation to bullying and harassment in the workplace.             
  • A new complaints policy was introduced in April 2021. This policy outlines that complainant should be managed as individuals, with unique needs and levels of complexity. Learning from complaints has become mandatory and is reported on weekly, monthly, and bimonthly to share this information with the Trust.  Additional guidance has been created for local teams to set out this new framework with coaching and training delivered to the management teams with a focus on developing quality and learning outcomes. " 

TOMORROW  

  • Patient feedback will continue to be obtained through surveys (as per previous Today section), with the core surveys and bespoke survey projects continuing to be included on the Patient Survey Programme.                    
  • Continued promotion of surveys and trialling of new methods going forward (e.g., SMS surveys/Instagram surveys) to increase the feedback received across all patient groups.                                                                  
  • Closer working with the Equality and Diversity Team going forward in relation to patient feedback, with more work required in relation to engagement and obtaining feedback from harder to reach groups.                                                                                                                                    
  • Continued collaboration with external groups and organisations in relation to survey projects and other patient experience/engagement projects, following the success of the co-production work.                                                                                                                                                                                 
  • Continued close working with the wider patient experience department, other departments, and colleagues/national groups to ensure shared learning. The use of MS Teams and remote working will continue to ensure close working.                                                                                                                                                                      
  • Weekly Patient Experience and Engagement meetings to continue, to ensure the triangulation of data and early identification of themes.                                                                                                                                          
  • Better sharing of lessons learned and actions taken is needed going forward - greater sharing of lessons learned and actions taken across the Trust and within training sessions.   
  • Further training and support to be provided to the patient experience teams.                                                        
  • SNAP software upgrade planned, which will enable a more efficient way of working and capturing patient feedback.                  
  • Better communication of patient feedback received, and the work undertaken by the Patient Experience Teams - e.g., Patient Voice Webinar, Podcasts.                                                                                                             
  • Further work is needed in relation to accessibility and easy read - with an easy read survey planned over the coming year."  

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