Using feedback from patients, carers and staff in a weekly “Patient Experience Huddle” has won national recognition for Walsall Healthcare’s Emergency Department.
“Back to Basics – Improving Patient Experience in the Emergency Department” won the prestigious Patient Experience Network National Award (PENNA) in the category Using Insight for Improvement. The award-winners received their accolade at a conference and ceremony at Birmingham Rep on Wednesday 20 March.
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust’s Patient Experience team worked with staff across all levels in ED – including Consultants, nursing staff and ward clerks – to develop a weekly “huddle” where audio feedback from patients and carers gathered through the trust’s Friends and Family Test is played. This identifies areas for improvement, as well as areas where patients have praised the department, and has helped staff to develop action plans and improve communication.
Danielle Oum, Trust Chair, said: “This is a fantastic result and richly deserved, Well done to you all.”
Miss Ruchi Joshi, Clinical Director in ED, said: ‘Back to Basics’ reconnected us with providing better fundamental care standards. It improved our understanding of how team behaviours, attitudes and work culture were affecting our service and what it would take to provide care and treatment personal to every patient.”
Louise Mabley, Patient Experience Lead, described the approach as “a leadership culture shift which empowered all team members to be improvement champions and the belief in making small incremental changes continuously was instrumental in this programme’s success.”
Debbie White, Care Group Support Manger, and Lesley Smith, Matron, were passionate supporters and worked with the team to organise weekly Patient Experience huddles, plan and implement this programme which is continuing to evolve and improve more aspects of patient, carer and staff experiences.
Kuldeep Singh, Patient Experience Manager, added: “As a starting point we put the focus on listening to and understanding patients, carers and staff experiences. The insight gained was then used as the core of the ‘Back to Basics’ improvement programme.” Co-production and co-creation of the improvements with service users and staff members was one of the main reasons we achieved success and sustainability.”
The Patient Experience team will build on collaborations with other clinical teams to achieve similar success.