Evaluating patients experiences of remote outpatient clinics during COVID-19

In NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the Department of Respiratory Medicine from Queen Elizabeth University Hospital had to adjust their referral pathway due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The new pathway involved conducting some patient appointments by phone. To evaluate the pathway change, they set out to obtain patient feedback about telephone appointments. Read more about the evaluation of the new respiratory pathway in this learning summary.

 

Developing and evaluating a new joint replacement service

An Orthopaedics team from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde used the remobilisation of elective services after COVID-19 as an opportunity to expand their joint replacement service. After implementation, they reviewed patient records and developed a patient survey to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the new pathway. Learn more about the expansion and evaluation of the orthopaedics service in this learning summary.

 

Improving access to Speech and Language Therapy to maximise life chances

A Speech and Language Therapy team from NHS Lanarkshire wanted to better understand why one of their clinics for children and young people had a particularly high DNA (Did Not Attend) rate and then try to reduce it. Because they work with many families who need support to access their service, they chose to survey patients’ families in order to identify common reasons for the DNAs. This enabled them to come up with change ideas that would address these reasons and therefore have the greatest impact.

They introduced text appointment reminders, a new appointment schedule, and a care plan document. The text reminders resulted in improved attendance fairly quickly and early qualitative feedback indicated that the new schedule and care plan were also having a positive effect. Read more about their work here.

 

Capturing patient wellbeing and experience virtually

In order to monitor the wellbeing of cancer patients whose surgeries have been delayed, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are extending the online use of patient-reported outcome measurements (PROMS) and patient-reported experience measurements (PREMS) across multiple cancer services. This was previously piloted by the Gynaecological Cancer Services. It has helped to inform team prioritisation decisions and the identification of patients needing urgent clinical review. Find out more in our learning summary.

 

Listening to service users to better understand your system 

NHS Grampian’s dermatology and plastics team used NHS Near Me to virtually interview patients on the Urgent Suspected Cancer pathway about their experiences with the service, what they felt had gone well, and what could be improved. This enabled the team to better understand their system and prioritise future improvement work. Read more about the interview process in this case study. The team also shared their recommendations for others considering virtual patient interviews, which can be found in this guide.