Access QI collaborative learning session two

The Access QI collaborative is helping ENT, Gynaecology, Urology, and other elective care services use quality improvement (QI) methods to sustainably and affordably improve waiting times.

The collaborative held its second learning session virtually in November 2022. The theme of the session was Understanding your System, with a focus on the service user and provider experience.

To kick things off, a delegate delivered a presentation sharing his team’s insights and learning from collaborating on a process map of their service. His team felt the map gave them a “fantastic visual” and helped them confirm what was happening within the service.

Then, the teams were introduced to the topic of patient and staff experience data, and how it can be used to inform improvement work. Experience data tells us what patients and healthcare staff might be feeling and thinking, and may also highlight areas that need improving. The teams learned about a wide range of methods that can be used to collect this data, including Care Opinion, interviews, focus groups, patient journey mapping, and empathy mapping.

“Good patient flow is central to patient experience, clinical safety and reducing the pressure on staff” – NHS Improvement 2017

The group then split into their teams in breakout rooms to practice working through an empathy map for a patient in their service. This enabled them to consider people’s thoughts, feelings, motivations, and behaviours, and better understand how they might experience a particular care pathway.

The day then concluded with a discussion of how to process and make use of experience data, and a chance for the teams to plan how they would go about collecting experience data over the coming weeks and months. Learn more about learning session two here.

The Access QI collaborative’s next learning session will take place in February 2023 and will focus on the theory of change, change ideas, and measurement.