Case study: Improving customer care
When patients know that you have time to listen to their experiences of services and their ideas for change, they have so much to offer. When staff are given time to listen to patients, it reminds them of their core values and reconnects them to their purpose.
This has certainly been the experience of staff from one of the teams and colleagues working with them. A patient survey highlighted the need for customer care training and patients and staff have started to design a suitable training programme. This will include improved training and development for clerical and reception staff which will result in a better patient experience and improve staff job satisfaction.
Having patients in the group changes and enriches the nature of the discussion. Patients bring perspectives from a range of different eye conditions, degrees of visual impairment, life experience and their experiences of other hospitals. This makes the patient voice a genuine part of the process.
Staff have found the experience motivating and refreshingly challenging. Staff recognise that they are able to be honest and transparent with each other and barriers to change are openly discussed and understood and the team are motivated to design something which will offer an improved patient experience.