The Patient Experience: Informing Practice through Identification of Meaningful Communication from the Patient's Perspective.

Angela Grocott,Wilfred Mcsherry

doi:10.3390/healthcare6010026

Abstract

(1) Background: There is limited empirical knowledge concerning aspects of healthcare that contribute to a good patient experience from the patient’s perspective and how patient feedback informs service development. (2) Aim: To examine the issues that influence the effectiveness of communication on patient satisfaction, experience and engagement, in an acute National Health Service (NHS) setting, through identification of the patient’s requirements and expectations. (3) Method: Data was gathered from a large teaching hospital using a Friends and Family Test (FFT) and a communication specific survey. Both surveys captured patient narrative to identify predominant influences to explain the quantitative responses. (4) Results: The key priorities for patients are involvement in their care and receiving the right amount of information to support this. However, the delivery of compassionate care was identified as having the most influence on the likelihood of patients to recommend an acute NHS Trust. (5) Conclusion: The findings support a broader understanding of the constituents of an all-encompassing patient experience from the patient’s perspective. (6) Implications: healthcare organizations need to focus their resources on how to improve patient/provider communication to support patients to be true partners in their care.

Highlights

Patient participation in healthcare decision-making is part of a wider trend towards a more bottom-up approach to service planning and delivery with patient experience increasingly conceptualised as a fundamental measurement of healthcare quality [1], patient safety and clinical effectiveness [2].This has resulted in the introduction of politically driven surveys to measure patient satisfaction and to evaluate the degree to which care is patient-centred [3].The development of patient/healthcare partnership through reciprocal communication has the potential to strengthen therapeutic bonds [4]
As there is a global scarcity of empirical studies that examine influential encounters in an acute healthcare setting [6], an aim of this study was to explore the attributes of meaningful communication in an acute healthcare setting from the patient’s perspective
The literature demonstrates that there are a variety of survey tools, these may be inadequate for measurement of the effects of communication on patient experience and the actions that influence this

Summary

Introduction

Patient participation in healthcare decision-making is part of a wider trend towards a more bottom-up approach to service planning and delivery with patient experience increasingly conceptualised as a fundamental measurement of healthcare quality [1], patient safety and clinical effectiveness [2].This has resulted in the introduction of politically driven surveys to measure patient satisfaction and to evaluate the degree to which care is patient-centred [3].The development of patient/healthcare partnership through reciprocal communication has the potential to strengthen therapeutic bonds [4]. Patient participation in healthcare decision-making is part of a wider trend towards a more bottom-up approach to service planning and delivery with patient experience increasingly conceptualised as a fundamental measurement of healthcare quality [1], patient safety and clinical effectiveness [2]. This has resulted in the introduction of politically driven surveys to measure patient satisfaction and to evaluate the degree to which care is patient-centred [3]. As there is a global scarcity of empirical studies that examine influential encounters in an acute healthcare setting [6], an aim of this study was to explore the attributes of meaningful communication in an acute healthcare setting from the patient’s perspective.

Methods

Results

Conclusion