Signs of positive change at RUH led by feedback
The RUH says it is making improvements across the whole hospital site thanks to the help of patients and visitors.
The Royal United Hospital encourages patients and visitors to let them know what is working well and what could be improved, with the feedback collated by the hospital’s patient experience team.
The team then works with departments and clinical areas across the hospital to act on patient feedback and introduce improvements.
Recent improvements include:
■ Improved signage – patients said that more signage was needed to help them find the fracture and orthopaedic clinic and the trauma assessment unit. In response, the estates and facilities team installed new signs and relocated others to improve way-finding.
■ The breast radiotherapy consultant service developed a questionnaire to review the service and the information they provide to patients. As a result of the feedback, the team improved the information available for patients, ensuring they had all the details they needed about the service.
■ The osteoporosis team reviewed their patients’ experience of telephone consultations.
As a result of the feedback, they made changes to the information in appointment letters to explain what patients can expect at their appointment.
They also ensured that appointment options for patients with a physical or sensory impairment were clear and easy to understand.
■ The neonatal intensive care unit provided a questionnaire to new parents to help them to understand their experience of the psychology support service available.
As a result the team improved the information about the psychology support service and introduced a parents’ group.
Sharon Manhi, lead for patient and carer experience at the RUH, said: “We really encourage hospital teams to collect patient and carer experience feedback, and to understand and use this feedback to improve services.
“We want to make patients’ experiences of the RUH as positive as possible, so we are always keen to hear what is working well or what we could be doing better.
“Thank you to everyone who takes the time to tell us about their experience – your comments are helping the RUH to continue to improve the services it offers to our patients and visitors.”