In a new push at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH), patients are being encouraged to question any aspect of their care and treatment. “Some staff may feel insulted if you ask them ‘Have you washed your hands?’ but doctors, interns, all staff are included, so patients should ask if they are concerned,” said Judy Richardson, Director of Quality and Risk Management at KEMH. Surveys a hotline and speaking up are the new tools quality assurance and risk management staff are using in looking at patient service at KEMH.

Staff at the hospital is being trained in the importance of addressing patient concerns and encouraging them to voice their concerns. The days of patients having to submit without question to the dictates of their doctors and other healthcare workers have gone. The problem is, many people do not realise this.

“We know in this day and age errors are going to happen in hospitals,” said Ms Richardson, “ But it’s been proven that if patients get involved in their own healthcare accidents decrease.”

“We want people to be aware of their rights,” she said. “Here at King Edward we do have both a Patient Bill of Rights and a Patient Bill of Responsibilities. Patients do have the right to ask questions, to ask what a procedure entails and they do have the right to refuse,” she said.

“We want to encourage patients especially seniors or those who may not be comfortable questioning their doctors, to get an advocate. They can have a family member advocate for them or in case there is no one, a nurse will act as an advocate for them,” she said.

Getting people involved in the decision process in their healthcare helps ensure that quality standards are met and even surpassed. This happens because patients understand the type of treatment they are to receive, and are more likely to recognise a deviation.

As part of Patient Safety Awareness Week, this week, KEMH has launched a campaign to educate the public on the importance of their input and how they should respond. SPEAK UP is the acronym being used to drive the message home that patients should question their health care at every stage. There is also an anonymous hotline number 291-SAFE where members of the public or patients can call in their concerns.

“This is for anyone who has an issue with patient care,” said Ms Richardson. “We never find things out until someone tells us. Lots of times people complain elsewhere but a lot could be accomplished if they came directly to us.”In an effort to see the specific public concerns of the hospital, KEMH has secured the services of an independent body to carry out patient satisfaction surveys. Press Ganey Associates is considered the leading firm in the US for conducting healthcare satisfaction measurement and improvement.Ms Richardson said the company began mailing out patient satisfaction surveys in mid-January. So far the company has averaged 400 mail outs per week for KEMH. The three-page survey is in a multiple-choice format and concentrates on the patient rating specific services as 1. very poor, 2. poor, 3 fair, 4. good, or 5. very good. There are seven different surveys, each for a different department in the hospital.

Every night the information technology department at KEMH will upload to Press Ganey the names and addresses of all patients seen in each of these departments. Computers at Press Ganey will then randomly select a percentage of those seen in each department and mail them a self-addressed stamped envelope with the relevant survey to complete.

Patients are urged to complete the surveys and pop them in the post to go back to Press Ganey in the US. Ms Richardson stressed that for quality control purposes it is important for the surveys to be mailed directly to Press Ganey and not be dropped off at KEMH.

“There is a danger of people feeling that we will go through them and throw away any with criticisms if we collect them here,” she said. She also expressed concern that patients may not bother to fill out the surveys at all. “The more data we get in the better decisions we can make,” she said. “We will be keeping a close watch on the rate of return of the surveys.”Patients using out patient, ambulatory, emergency, obstetrics & gynecology, oncology or inpatient services could receive a survey.“Patients may find that they receive more than one survey because they have used more than one service in the hospital in a single visit,” said Michael Nesbitt, Process Improvement Coordinator. “They should fill out each survey and return them.”

“This company shares our commitment to improve clinical, financial and satisfaction data. Studies show that improving satisfaction results in an increase in word-of-mouth referral, which will result in increased volumes of services at the Bermuda Hospitals Board,” said Ms Richardson.

“Press Ganey sets the standard by developing and fielding valid and reliable satisfaction surveys,” she added. The company will provide management reports that not only detail the information collected, but identify success, opportunities for improvement and outline best practice recommendations for addressing these improvements. The data will also be compared with other hospitals.

“Patient satisfaction is as important as other clinical health measures and is a primary means of measuring the effectiveness of healthcare delivery,” Ms Richardson said. “We need to know our strengths and weaknesses in order to compete. On top of clinical care, service excellence is a major focus of patients and family members in healthcare.”

She stressed the importance of ensuring the hospital is as safe as possible. “We want to improve things before we walk into a new facility. That’s our new aim. We want to be as close to 100 percent as possible,” she said.