Title: An evaluation of a real-time survey for improving patients’ experiences of the relational aspects of care
Funder: Department of Health (England)

Abstract: This project will evaluate the effectiveness of a real-time data collection for driving improvement in patients’ experiences of the relational aspect of care in NHS acute hospital services. The study aims are:1. To explore and understand the processes and impacts of real-time data collection in the NHS as reflected in patient experience data and as understood by NHS frontline staff service leads and managers; 2. To identify the key drivers and determinants of ‘success’; and 3. To develop and disseminate evidence-based recommendations to support the implementation of effective real-time data collection about patient experience in the NHS. A developmental research design will be used combining quantitative qualitative and participatory research approaches. The first phase will develop via factor analysis of national patient survey data composite indicators that can be used to measure trusts’ performance on the relational aspects of care. The aim is to recruit six case-study trusts that differ in terms of their patient survey results on relational care & other key characteristics. The real-time survey tool will be developed from a review of existing instruments the patient focus groups and factor analysis carried out at the start of the project. In the second phase participatory action research will be undertaken with staff in the six case-study trusts to understand and inform the implementation of real-time data collection. This will be achieved by: 1. Conducting semi-structured interviews with staff in a range of roles. 2. Implementing a near real-time feedback survey that will focus on the relational aspects of care and will be administered by trained volunteers at the point of care over a ten month period. 3. Running an online staff survey before and after the introduction of the real-time data collection.4. Delivering two participatory workshops for front-line staff service leads and managers at each case-study trust. The first workshop will be run after three months of data collection and the overall objective will be to identify ‘what needs to change and how’ for real-time data to drive improvements. A second workshop will be run at the end of data collection; the objective will be to evaluate the processes and impacts of implementing real-time data collection. This will include identifying why patients’ experiences improved or did not improve over the course of the data collection period 5. Conducting evaluation interviews with staff and volunteers to assess both the impact of the survey on staff behaviours/organisational change and the process of using volunteers to administer the survey.The study will provide evidence about how to collect communicate and use real-time data to improve the relational aspects of care. The research findings recommendations and resources will be disseminated to other NHS organisations at three regional workshop events designed for NHS service managers and patient experience leads. This research is important because it will provide much-needed evidence about how the NHS ensures that the patient voice is heard understood and used to improve the relational aspects of frontline care. It will provide evidence about how to improve performance on key patient experience indicators and communicate improvements to key stakeholders. The research will identify necessary conditions for the successful implementation of a real-time feedback approach for improving patients’ experiences of the ‘softer’ aspects of care.


Research activity codes: 8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES;7.3 MANAGEMENT AND DECISION MAKING
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE