Caboolture Hospital Patient CaRE Survey

Through the CaRE Patient Experience survey trial undertaken at Caboolture Hospital in November - December 2016, we asked patients and carers about thier experiences through the CaRe "Connection and Respectful" Experience  (CaRE) survey.

Through the CaRE survey, we asked you how we are going in following key areas and scored us out :

• connection to reflect the importance of taking time to establish  trust and relationships
• respect  to ensure that you experience respect in the way you are treated and in all communication
• empathy  to ensure that compassionate care was provided to you
• information to see if you received all the information you needed, in a way that you understood, and was helpful and timely
• continuity and consistency to ensure that all healthcare professionals involved in your care were consistent and worked as a team to support you
• involvement as a way of understanding if you felt you were involved in the decisions about your care as much as you wanted to be. We also asked if you wanted your family to be involved and how well we did that.

176 people participated in the survey across a variety of locations (Emergency Department, Wards, Maternity).  Overall, you  said that your experience was positive; however there was also some consistent themes where you said we could improve.  The areas in which we scored lowest are:

• the score that you gave us for your overall experience highlghted room for improvement
• involving you and your family as much as you would have liked is another where you said we could improve
• taking time to connect with you and understand  your individual needs is something you also said we could improve.

From the additional comments that you provided, we identified the following areas  areas of importance to our consumers:

A few specific issues were raised :

• maternity visiting hours were restrictive and partners wanted to be able to  stay with mothers and newborns for extended hours
• parking was a signficant issue, particularly for people who are older or those with a disability
• the abilty to charge phones
• care of elderly, particularly frail, and their carers

A Metro North group of consumers has reviewed  the themes that emerged to develop a Metro North patient experience strategy that will aim to improve the experience of patients in these areas.

We are now commencing our 2017 CaRE survey with the aim of ensuring we are on track to achieving 10/10 in all areas of importance to the patient.