Better Patient Feedback, Better Healthcare

Until recently, patient feedback has not had a very high profile in clinical practice. There has been no tradition of systematically gathering and tracking patient feedback over time – let alone using the findings to continually review and improve services.

Why is it so vital to gather patient feedback? The fact is that involving patients leads to better treatment adherence and more effective healthcare; and better healthcare means increased health benefits for patients and reduced expenditure for national health systems. This landmark publication explores ideas related to patient feedback and care, and offers effective methods of measuring, analysing and utilising feedback. Such approaches can lead to continual small improvements that cumulatively add up to major long-term transformation in healthcare systems.

In clinical settings where staff members are already dealing with many different screening and checking systems, employing these techniques may seem like an additional burden. However, it has been found that implementing a good patient feedback system actually helps to streamline services. Furthermore, patient feedback will increasingly be used by NHS healthcare commissioners for reimbursement purposes. This is already happening in the USA and it is being proposed in the UK.

Quite simply, Better Patient Feedback, Better Healthcare is required reading for any healthcare professional or administrator wanting to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and quality of patient care offered by their service.

Keywords: patient feedback, customer care