Health Minister and local MP get the inside track of patient experience at St George’s
Health Minister Ben Bradshaw and MP for Tooting Sadiq Khan visited St George’s Hospital yesterday (7 January) where they discovered how innovative ways of working are helping to improve patient care.
Mr Bradshaw and Mr Khan were shown how the electronic Patient Experience Tracker (PET) helps patients to give immediate feedback on the care they receive. They also learnt about the Trust’s Productive Ward scheme which is freeing up staff time by improving ward processes and organisation.
Sadiq Khan MP said: “I would like to congratulate St George’s on pioneering new technology in patient care. The Patient Experience Tracker (PET) will enable the hospital to meet the needs and wishes of all patients who visit A&E. I am confident that as the pool of survey responses grows, and clear trends are established, the PET will be a vital tool to hospital staff.”
Left to right: Matron Nicola Shopland demonstrates the PET to Ben Bradshaw, Sadiq Khan and Dr Geraldine Walters, Director of Nursing and Patient Involvement.
Notes to editors
For more information, please contact the Communications Unit on 020 8725 5151 or email communications@stgeorges.nhs.uk. Outside working hours, please page us by calling 0844 822 2888, leaving a short message and contact details for pager SG548..
High resolution image available on request.
Productive Ward project
The Productive Ward project is a systematic approach to improving the reliability, safety and efficiency of the care to be delivered. All processes within ward are reviewed including meals, medicines, admission and planned discharge, shift handovers, patient hygiene, patient observations, nursing procedures and ward rounds.
A foundation module of the programme is creating a ‘well organised ward’. The ward is de-cluttered and organised so that space, storage and work areas work for the nurses, rather than against them, and work flows are examined to see where time is lost.
Four wards at St George’s including Cavell Ward began piloting the Productive Ward in spring 2008. Another four joined the programme in autumn 2008.
Patient Experience Tracker (PET)
From October 2008, ten clinical areas across the hospital have been piloting a new technology to capture and analyse feedback from patients. Patient Experience Trackers (PET) are hand-held electronic devices which display a short patient survey. The trackers do not take a patient’s details but do time and date the survey so that trends can be tracked over time.
