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Why is this National Indicator important?
A good healthcare experience lies at the heart of a high quality health service. It is also key to providing a service which is owned by both the people of Scotland and the staff which provide it. This mutually beneficial approach is a central theme in Better Health Better Care (December 2007) and now in the Healthcare Quality Strategy for NHSScotland (May 2010). Only when we consider a high quality healthcare experience as a key NHS issue can we ensure that services are responsive to the needs of the individuals who use them. It is hoped that this will be shown to improve outcomes for patients in the long term.
What will influence this National Indicator?
A number of factors have been identified as being key to a good healthcare experience. These include: caring and compassionate staff and service; clear communication and explanation about conditions and treatment; effective collaboration between clinicians, patients and others; a clean and safe care environment, continuity of care and clinical excellence. Work is already underway across Scotland to make improvements in these areas and will be further strengthened by the Healthcare Quality Strategy. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/05/10102307/0
What is the Government's role?
The Scottish Government's Healthcare Quality Strategy for NHS Scotland has patient experience and improvement at its core. Scotland's Patient Experience Programme is focused on understanding the experience of patients across Scotland. It will help NHS boards and others identify the main areas for improvement and will provide advice and support to help them address these issues.
How are we performing?
Scotland's Patient Experience Programme (Better Together) carries out two national surveys - of people who have been in hospital and of GP patients. The 2011 national results from the inpatients survey is available here: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/08/
An indicator using the results of the inpatient survey has been developed in consultation with the new Quality Alliance. This indicator combines the responses from 6 individual questions into one value to measure overall healthcare experience. This results in a value between 0 and 100 for overall healthcare experience.
Calculated in this way, the latest value of the indicator is 78.1 compared to the initial value of 78.3.
Methodology
This evaluation is based on: any difference within +/- 0.5 points of the previous year's figure suggests that the position is more likely to be maintaining than showing any change. An increase of 0.5 points or more suggests that the position is improving, whereas a decrease of 0.5 points or more suggests that the position is worsening.
Please note that this methodology for assessing performance will be subject to review in the future. As more data points become available it is expected that these will provide a clearer picture of variance in the figures and the thresholds may have to be revised appropriately. For more information please see the technical note.
For more information see Scotland Performs Technical Note
For information on general methodological approach, please click here.
Who are our partners?
NHS Scotland
Related Strategic Objectives
Healthier
Safer and Stronger
Greener