Annual Report and Accounts 2012/13 - Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital

12 2. Progress on our
2012/13 Priorities
Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust
Quality Report 2012/13
2. Communication
between staff and
patients
During 201, patients told us that that
they were bothered at night by noise
from other patients. We resolved to
better understand the issues by talking
to patients and getting their input to
a scheme to provide eye masks and
ear plugs on request. This has resulted
in a smaller proportion of patients
reporting being troubled by noise at
night in our last survey (2012).
In the responses we received from
patients in our National Inpatient
Survey results last year, a greater
proportion of patients than in previous
years reported that they:
• Could always understand what
was being said to them when they
had important questions
• Had confidence and trust in the
doctors and nurses treating them
• Were involved as much as they
wanted to be in the decisions
about their care and treatment
• Were given the right amount of
information about their condition
or treatment
• Were able to find someone on the
hospital staff to talk about their
worries and fears
• Got enough support from hospital
staff during their stay
• Were clear beforehand that
a member of staff explained
what would be done during the
operation or procedure
• Were clear beforehand that
a member of staff answered
questions about the operations
or procedure in a way that the
patient could understand.
Over the last year we have worked
hard on improving the ways in which
people leave hospital in a timely,
efficient and safe way. This work was
reflected in the response to the 2012
survey, where a higher proportion of
patients told us that:
• They felt that they were involved
in decisions about going home
• A member of staff explained the
purpose of the medicines that they
were taking in a way that they
could understand
• A member of staff told the patient
about medication side effects to
watch out for when they went
home
• They understood how to take their
medication when they went home
• They were given written or printed
information about their medicines
• A member of staff told the patient
about any danger signals that the
patient should watch for after they
went home
• The doctors or nurses gave the
patient’s family, or someone close
to the patient, all the information
they needed to help care for the
patient
• Hospital staff told the patient
whom to contact if they were
worried about their condition
or treatment after they left the
hospital.
Care Quality Assessment Tool
Our innovative Nursing Quality
Assessment Tool (NQAT) was
developed in 2009 to ensure that we
systematically used:
• Record keeping compliance
• Observation of care
• Feedback from patients
to identify key priorities to improve
patient care.
Since we first introduced this approach
we have been constantly developing
its effectiveness. For example, over the
last year we have made a number of
changes to our record keeping so that
it now encompasses a wider range of
professionals involved in a patient’s
care, including doctors, nurses and
therapists. This has helped to ensure
that everyone involved in patient care
fully understands what is needed. As
a result, our record keeping standards
have improved. In recognition that the
tool has been extended to the care
provided by doctors and therapists
as well as nurses, we have changed
its name to CQAT – the Care Quality
Assessment Tool.
We have also introduced a fourth
element into CQAT: staff experience.
We know that how staff feel about
their work makes a real difference
to the experience of patients. That
is why we have introduced a staff
feedback element into the tool so that
we can obtain a better picture about
the overall care being offered to our
patients. This will enable us to make
even more improvements to the quality
and safety of care we provide.