Trust/Practice: University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

What did they do?

University Hospitals of Leicester wanted to improve the patient experience in outpatients. Using FFT results, the Patient Experience Team launched a monthly internal newsletter to share how feedback is being used to drive excellence in care and give recognition to the staff who are helping to improve care.

Each bulletin showcases a different outpatient area and describes how they have listened to patient feedback, implemented changes that address the issues raised and illustrate the resulting improvements in the recommendation score. A recent team photograph and patient comments, highlighting the commitment and dedication of staff is included to bring the story to life. Each bulletin generates three or more good examples of listening and responding to feedback which is then added to a dedicated library accessible to staff. The process to identify each area and tell a story is relatively simple and can easily be replicated in other organisations.

What did they learn?

The bulletin has proven to be an interesting and accessible way of identifying outpatient areas with improving FFT results, and highlighting changes that have been delivered in response to feedback. Importantly, the publication has had a positive effect on the morale of the teams that have been featured, with staff involved expressing their gratitude and satisfaction that their efforts were being recognised by the trust. Writing the bulletin has also given staff a chance to fully realise their achievements and reflect on them.

Yes, we are very proud of our FFT results as we do think of ourselves as being caring and compassionate!

The bulletin is currently being extended to inpatients services and considered for other areas of the trust.