InFocus Magazine 2007 - Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

04
Assessing patient care at the Diagnosis and Treatment Centre
On average our Diagnosis and Treatment
Centre (DTC) sees up to 1000 patients
every month. With such a high volume of
patients coming and going, it would be
easy to focus on the numbers and forget
about the patient’s individual experience.
So we’ve introduced a system of assessing
the quality of care - by consulting directly
with patients.
The DTC sees a wide variety of patients
- requiring a general anaesthetic, sedation
or local anaesthetic – aged between
12 months and 95 years! We cover most
specialties - ear, nose and throat, general
surgery, orthopaedics, gynaecology,
endoscopy and urology, to name a few.
Patient choice and opinion is very important
here. The DTC team follows up every patient
who has been anaesthetised or sedated,
carrying out a telephone questionnaire to
find out how they felt about the service they
received in our care. These questionnaires
are audited and the results used to improve
patient service. If several patients highlight the
same problem or issue, we won’t wait around
- the issue will be immediately investigated
and rectified. These questionnaires are
also used to highlight areas in the DTC
for further audit such as post-operative
pain control. Telephoning the patient the
following day also provides them with the
opportunity to ask questions that may have
arisen since discharge. If patients or their
carers have comments while in our care,
they can also write in the comment books
in discharge areas and wards.
Since introducing the questionnaires we’ve
been able to make some positive changes
that benefit patients. People frequently
told us that they had forgotten the advice
given to them on discharge, so we now
give all patients their wound care advice
in writing, with details about removing
dressings or having sutures removed.
We’ve also been prompted to investigate
the amount of time patients can wait for
certain procedures, particularly endoscopy.
Our team is working out how staggered
admission times can be improved to avoid
patients’ long waits.
For further information on the work of the
DTC please contact Modern Matron, Kathy
Barton or email kathy.barton@bnhft.nhs.uk
Meet The School Nurse
What does a School nurse do?
We send nurses to schools for three important reasons:
For many children, the school nurse is their
first source of information about physical and
emotional health. As well as organising events
and promoting health messages, the school
nurse does something very important: listening
to children’s worries and concerns.
To give confidential advice, care and treatment to children
(and their parents or carers)
To promote physical and emotional health and to help teachers
understand what children need to be healthy
To help protect and safeguard children from significant harm
Why is this role important?
In practice, a school nurse has a very diverse role. School nurses act
as a link between school and other organisations, like children’s
services and the police. They organise immunisation programmes
and help teachers with their personal and social health education
lessons. It’s important that teachers themselves understand how to
deal with health issues such as allergies, epilepsy, and asthma, and
the school nurse can help train teaching staff in this respect.
But the school nurse is also available whenever children need
confidential, independent advice. Children and young people
can see a school nurse in school for lots of different reasons –
for instance:
To talk about their health or worries in confidence
To get emotional support, for example if they have problems
with friends or at home
To assess for any health problems and refer to somebody else
who can help, for example, a doctor
To give advice on smoking, relationships or sexual health