NSW Health WSLHD Safety & Quality Account 2020-21

Improving the patient carer experience

The Beryl Institute defines patient experience as, “The sum of all interactions, shaped by an organisation’s culture, that influence patient perceptions across the continuum of care.” WSLHD is committed to providing positive patient experience in all aspects of our care and to understand through feedback from patients what we are doing well and what we can improve.

How we measure what we do We measure patient experience in multiple ways, for example: compliments and complaints, My Experience Matters surveys real time feedback, Bureau of Health Information surveys and patient stories. We are committed to including consumers in developing improvement initiatives in response to feedback. In WSLHD we are continually working to improve the way in which we interact with consumers to measure experience and utilise the feedback. The Bureau of Health Information (BHI) measures patient experience of all hospitals in NSW with inpatient, outpatient, Emergency Department, and Cancer Services surveys. This information is reported retrospectively and aims to highlight some of the system-wide trends in patient experience for context and benchmarking purposes. BHI also provide Key Performance Indicators for patient experience and engagement which all hospital in NSW are measured against. Locally, WSLHD has implemented and promoted the use of My Experience Matters, where patients, carers and consumers can provide real time data feedback by completing surveys. This allows the organisation to identify opportunities for improvements in care and service provision. In 2021/22, WSLHD has significantly improved this platform by designing surveys to specifically capture Aboriginal and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) feedback. My Experience Matters data is used throughout the organisation in both clinical and non-clinical settings and is an important part of our care delivery.

Patient Experience Initiatives Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Patient and Carer Experience In partnership with WSLHD Translation Services, the Patient and Carer Experience (PCE) team have committed to understanding the patient experience of patients who speak a language other than English. This commitment included translating our main patient experience surveys (inpatient outpatient and Emergency Department) surveys into Arabic and Chinese. These languages are the most widely spoken languages in Western Sydney. This brings Arabic and Chinese speaking consumers voice into the organisation to be able to identify issues and respond. Initial observations highlighted many areas where experiences were similar to English speaking consumers however, some areas such as access to interpreting services were identified to be a barrier for the CALD community and provided an opportunity for a targeted response. Feedback from patients in the COVID-19 Vaccination Clinics in WSLHD identified issues with interpreters being available for consent discussions. Health Care Interpreter Services re-designed their booking services and moved to the Microsoft Teams platform to streamline bookings and allow for virtual interpreter appointments to commence within a maximum of 15-minute margin prior to the patient’s appointment. Improved interpreting services ensures informed and inclusive decision-making for patients, carers and families of the WSLHD community.

“After all, we are all humans caring for humans and we all have a story to tell” Elevating the Human Experience - Ministry of Health

Left: Gurdwara Sahib Glenwood temple community member Sukhdev Kaur Brar. Right: WSLHD Outreach COVID Vaccination Gallipoli Mosque Auburn. Enes Ozkan (Imam), Dr Zarza Rashidi (Medical Officer) Blacktown Allied Health new physiotherapist TimWass starts.

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