Patient care to be improved
Wednesday, 03 Dec 2008 06:31
Major programme to improve patient experience in hospitals launched
In Focus
Click here for top tips on making environmental practices work for your business, on inthenews.co.uk. Full Story
A major programme to improve patients' experience of hospital care has been launched.
According to a report from the Point of Care programme funded by The King's Fund, current efforts do not do enough to transform hospital culture or to support staff to provide compassionate care.
It recommends that action be taken at four levels: the individual staff member; the team, unit or department; the institution as a whole, and the wider health care system.
The Director of The King's Fund Point of Care programme, Dr Jocelyn Cornwell, said: "Staff come to work intending to provide the quality of care they would want for themselves and their families.
"But today's hospitals are vast, time is at a premium and in these busy 'medical factories' care of the person can unfortunately get squeezed out."
Several hospitals in England will be piloting schemes to transform the experience of patients after a report found more action is needed to help staff provide better care.
The Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust will be trialling Schwartz Center Rounds, a monthly one-hour session for staff from all disciplines in a hospital to come together and discuss difficult emotional and social issues arising from patient care from early 2009.
In addition, Experience Based Design, which involves patients and staff working together to improve the experience of using services, will be used at Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust over the next three years.