Making the patient feel better

Jan 21 2008 by Jonathan Davies, Western Mail

THE author Dan Stanford once said, “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.”

Never can this quotation appear truer than when looking at patient perceptions of their experiences in the NHS.

The Department of Health defines patient experience as, “Meeting not only the physical needs of patients but the emotional ones as well.”

It goes on to say that ensuring a good overall experience for patients means providing good treatment in a comfortable, caring and safe environment, delivered in a calm and reassuring way; supplying clear, understandable information to allow choices to be made with a feeling of confidence and control, and interacting with patients as an equal – treating them with honesty, respect and dignity.

The NHS in Wales is actually very good at meeting the physical needs of patients, but is it as good at taking account of patients’ emotional needs?

When treating patients, is the focus primarily on “getting the task done” rather than focusing on the patient as a human being and making them feel better?

The way a patient perceives the care they have received is not just about the fabric of the building and the technical proficiency of the staff they encounter.

Contrary to popular belief it is not all about the length of time they have to wait either – it is about helping them to feel better.

In the paper, Understanding Public and Patient Attitudes, Ipsos-Mori provides evidence to show that the emotional experience is the key driver for overall patient satisfaction and that there is next to no relationship between mortality ratios and patient perceptions.

This research also reveals that patients feel that the service in hospitals and medical facilities has become too much like the buildings it takes place in – sterile.

It seems that emotions can sometimes be lacking from medical services at the point where they are needed most due to the fact that people in a medical facility are emotionally at their most vulnerable.

Patients – like any of us – place a lot of emphasis on first impressions. These impressions of a health facility are formed in the initial seven seconds after their arrival and can include factors such as car parking, cleanliness, maintenance of the estate, the quality and choice of food available, and the friendliness of the staff.

It is vital that the NHS does these things better so that the more clinically-focused elements of the experience are received positively, which will aid recovery and lead to shorter stays in hospital.

The NHS in Wales is already placing more emphasis on the importance of the overall experience and is moving in a more patient-focused direction, but there is still some way to go.

Organisations and their staff are now asking themselves:

Is your admitting process devoid of empathy?

Is your waiting room painful to sit in?

Do staff walk past, ignoring lost patients?

Are patients properly greeted on arrival?

These questions are similar in nature to those that customer-focused businesses, such as Tesco or the Marriott group of hotels, ask themselves every day in a bid to keep their customers satisfied.

Maybe there are further lessons that the NHS can learn from the private sector about creating a better patient experience.

Current evidence suggests that a more patient-focused approach from the NHS that puts patients in control, and at the centre, of their care is essential. At the same time, the evidence is also clear that focusing hard on certain key elements of the patient experience will have far more effect on overall perceptions than trying to do everything at once.

Jonathan Davies is the Welsh NHS Confederation’s policy and political manager