 North East Essex Primary Care Trust (NEEPCT) began in January 2008 and covers the areas previously served by Colchester and Tendring Primary Care. NEEPCT holds the NHS budget for the residents of Colchester and Tendring, some 315,000 people in the 255 square miles covered by Colchester Borough Council and Tendring District Council. The funding is used to ensure high quality health services are available for residents and to improve the health of the local population. The Trust also provides learning disability services across North Essex. In January 2008, NEEPCT agreed to work with NETbuilder to provide an end-to-end service for the management of Outcome Data with regard to Patient Satisfaction for the NEEPCT. NETbuilder proved early on that it could capture, manage and analyse this information from a difficult target audience and provide useful and measurable management data that would enable the PCT to make better-informed decisions with regard to its own management of these services.
To achieve the goals, NETbuilder implemented a solution to enable NEEPCT to record and measure patient feedback. This was accomplished through a number of electronic methods such as:
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touch screens
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handheld devises
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web browser
NETbuilder has provided the entire mechanism from the software to the design, publishing and management of the questionnaires to the physical equipment need to run the project. The PCT now has access to measurable data, which it can use for commissioning purposes, better-informed decision making and most importantly to improve customer service to its patients.
The project, which is still ongoing, has seen a visible return on investment from the solution developed by NETbuilder. The cost of deploying paper surveys and then attempting to extract valuable data from them is very expensive compared to NETbuilder’s fully automated service. In addition, NETbuilder’s solution gives the services the information they need in order to prove that they are efficient and valued when it comes to commissioning.
In a recent interview for HETV, David Cohen, Commissioning Manager NEEPCT, had this to say about the solution:
What methods did you use to gather patient feedback previously and how do they compare with the new electronic solution?
‘Previously, we had a manual system of data collection (e.g. paper questionnaires) which was untimely, inconsistently applied across services, had a poor response rate and was resource intensive. The new electronic solution automates the collection, measurement and management of patient feedback and reports on trends in real time so we can respond much quicker to patient need.
We can redeploy staff time that was previously spent number-crunching and save on cost too, although it is not possible to quantify this it is evident that there is significant cost savings coupled with the vast improvement in the richness of the data.
The system is also flexible and responsive enough to enable us to make changes to questionnaires in real time. This means that when new services or methods are piloted we can receive feedback on their impact and tailor our input accordingly. Equally, if we receive negative feedback on some aspect of our services i.e. staff attitude we can focus in on this to determine the specific issue.’
What are the benefits of the QMS patient feedback application to your trust?
‘The QMS solution has improved how we measure and manage outcome data, specifically patient satisfaction, to help us assess the effectiveness of our services. It also provides evidence and assurance to our Commissioners, enabling them to drive better informed decision making processes. Now, when we make a service change, we can use the QMS solution to assess its impact using tailored questions. For example, we have used the application to determine the success or otherwise from a patient perspective of the new patient catering service within our two community hospitals, Clacton and Harwich.
We can use NETbuilder to spot trends and raise awareness around specific subjects, e.g. the core questions include one around patient awareness of staff washing their hands, as a result of national exposure and a national campaign to clean hands the results show patient awareness has increased. We can also compare information received service against service and see if there are any areas that are under performing or areas that we could investigate to promote as best practice. When we have a year’s worth of data we will be able to relate changes to seasonal impact and impact of marketing/public awareness campaigns etc.
NETbuilder can also be used to promote subjects such as Productive Ward; we can add questions to find out if patients are aware of initiatives or even just tell them a bit about the initiatives.’
What feedback have you had from staff and patients using the device?
‘Uptake has been excellent. It is quick and simple to operate and patients like it because they can offer their views while their experience is still fresh in their minds.‘
How quick and easy was the application to implement? Was training required?
‘A project working group, including service representatives, was set up in early 2008 to develop, oversee and implement the NETbuilder patient satisfaction system. It did not take long to agree a set of core questions that individual services could then add to.
The first screens were introduced in month June In the hospital and district nursing service and once initial teething problems were resolved roll out has been swift. The PCT has now agreed to the business case following the successful pilot which will be rolled out during 2009.
Some training is required to ensure staff know how to operate and particularly download the patient data from the terminals, where portable systems are being used. Where possible direct internet connections are provided to ensure real time collection of data.’
How are you planning to scale up or extend the use of the system in the future?
‘From this year, all NHS Provider Services will become separate organisations from their local PCTs. The QMS application will enable us to provide robust data for both commissioners and provider services to give assurance and drive evidence-based decisions.
During 2009 we will introduce the NETbuilder solution into all of our community services. As we develop our website, we will also be building on the opportunities to gather information through that route and exploring how the system might be used to collect other outcome data, including around quality of life/lifestyle issues and for gathering views internally from staff.’
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