One Message
The monthly staff briefing
from the Chief Executive
Improving patient experience
Dear Colleague,
Government plans to give patients their own
health budgets so they can pick and choose
what NHS services they want were widely
reported in the media last week. Ministers will
include legislation in the Health Bill to allow
the scheme to be piloted in England later
this year. Personal budgets have been used
in social care since the mid 1990s and the
government believes it can empower patients
to get more from the NHS.
This announcement is part of a growing trend
that is seeing patients being given more
choice over the healthcare they receive, and
it is important that St George’s responds to
this change in a positive way. One way of
measuring our performance and improving
our standards is to track the experiences
of patients and in this area the Trust is
undertaking some pioneering work.
Patient Experience Trackers
Since October 2008, ten clinical areas
across the hospital have been piloting new
technology, known as Patient Experience
Trackers (PET), to capture and analyse
feedback from patients. These hand-held
electronic devices which display a short
patient survey are supplied by Dr Foster
Our values + Treat all Intelligence. Survey questions have been
people with respect and devised by the Trust’s PET Steering Group
based on areas highlighted by previous
dignity + Deliver care in
patient surveys as needing improvement.
partnership with others The trackers offer five questions, and patients
+ Continually strive for answer by choosing an option which most
excellence + Ensure closely matches their personal experience.
probity and transparency
Example questions include:
in spending public money
+ Be an exemplary During your stay on this ward, are you
 the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS).
employer + Be committed being treated with respect and dignity?
to education, training and  In your opinion, how clean are the
research + Be open and toilet and bathroom facilities that you
honest with each other use?
January 2009
 When you want to talk to a doctor, do
you have opportunity to do so?
 Are you involved as much as you want
to be in the decisions about your care
and treatment?
 Do you feel you have been well cared
for on this ward?
The PETs do not record a patient’s personal
details but do time and date the survey so
that trends can be tracked over time. The
Trust is introducing 30 more PET devices in
Outpatient clinics before the end of January.
The feedback from PET devices is collated
each week and reported to the PET Steering
Group. The manager of the ward or clinical
area formulates an action plan based on the
results. This is taken to staff meetings and
discussed, and suggestions for improvements
are invited from all levels. Reports are also
shared with senior clinical staff across the
hospital. One example of how feedback can
lead to change came on a ward where low
scores were received around the cleanliness
of toilet and bathroom areas. The nurse in
charge responded by increasing cleaning
hours on the ward and set a regular time to
check toilets with the ward domestic.
Raising awareness
Posters are being displayed in the areas
where the PETs are being piloted so patients
and their relatives can see where the ward or
clinical area is making improvements.
Results will be combined with all other
feedback from patients, including those
received by Complaints & Improvements by
The implementation of the project is being
supported by volunteers and St George’s PALS,
and the long-term aim is to get full ownership
of the project by staff across St George’s.
News of our work with the PETs is spreading
 fast and at the beginning of January Ben dignified care. The RCN workshops, designed
Bradshaw, Health Minister, and Sadiq Khan, with expert input from St George’s Assistant
MP for Tooting, visited St George’s to see first Directors of Nursing Jayne Quigley and Ruth
hand how the trackers were being used and Meadows, provide examples of good practice
were given an expert insight by A&E Matron and also offer tools to facilitate best practice.
Nicola Shopland.
One of the case studies used as part of this
Productive Wards training focuses on the needs of patients
with special needs. The Patient Passport
While at St George’s, our visitors also took Scheme provides hospital staff with vital
the chance to see how the Productive Ward information about patients who are unable
scheme is helping to improve the patient to communicate in any other way. Passports
experience. are ‘owned’ by the patient, who controls the
information they hold.
Cathy Barrett, Senior Ward Sister on Cavell,
was on hand to explain key aspects of the The passport scheme, the result of a joint
scheme including the ‘patient status at a project between St George’s and Wandsworth
glance’ board. This provides a visual map Community Learning Disability Team, recently
of the patient journey so all staff involved won a £2,000 Foundation of Nursing Award.
in patient care can see where patients are
in terms of investigations, treatment and Yes we can
discharge.
By the time you read this issue of One
The Productive Ward project, led by the Message, President Barack Obama will have
Nursing Directorate, is part of St George’s taken office in the White House. His “Yes we
can” message to America is one that we can
Transformation Programme.
all take on board.
The aim of the Productive Ward is to Change has been a constant theme in
increase the time nurses spend on direct the NHS in recent years but if we are to
patient care by improving ward processes successfully provide care that meets patients’
and organisation. This in turn improves the increasing expectations then we will need
experience of both patients and staff. to continue to develop and modernise our
services. With the continued support and
The Productive Ward is a systematic approach commitment of staff at St George’s I am
to improving the reliability, safety and confident that we can meet the challenge of
efficiency of the care to be delivered. All change through 2009 and beyond.
the processes within the ward are reviewed
including meals, medicines, admission and
planned discharge, shift handovers, patient
hygiene, patient observations, nursing
procedures and ward rounds. David Astley
Chief Executive
Four wards at St George’s began piloting
Our values + Treat all the Productive Ward in spring 2008. These
people with respect and are Cavell (surgical), William Drummond
dignity + Deliver care in (stroke care), Richmond (medical admissions
partnership with others unit) and Frederick Hewitt (paediatric ward).
+ Continually strive for Another four joined the programme in
autumn 2008, Buckland (renal), the Wolfson
excellence + Ensure
Centre for Neuro-rehabilitation, Rodney
probity and transparency
Smith Ward (medical) and Amyand (medical
in spending public money admissions unit).
+ Be an exemplary
employer + Be committed
Delivering quality care
to education, training and
Dignity is central to the quality of care for
research + Be open and patients and St George’s is currently running
honest with each other a series of Royal College of Nursing (RCN)
workshops, teaching staff how small changes
can make a big difference in delivering