The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The Hospital Authority (HA) will launch a Patient Experience Survey (PES) next Monday (August 7) at its 26 public hospitals to better understand patients' experience and feedback in receiving inpatient service for the purpose of continuous service improvement from patients' perspective. 
 
     The HA has commissioned the Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care of The Chinese University of Hong Kong to conduct the Survey, for which patients discharged from the selected hospitals will be randomly recruited for a telephone interview. The Survey will take around five months to complete and will cover important aspects including hospital staff; patient care and treatment; information on leaving hospital; and overall impression.
 
     Patients' consent will be sought before commencement of the telephone interview and personal data will be handled in strict confidence. Patients are free to withdraw anytime from the Survey if they change their mind.
 
     The HA appeals to patients to actively participate in the Survey. "Service improvement is important and will be an integral part of corporate governance as well as patients' views on hospital services.  To continuously improve HA services, healthcare staff have to understand patients' needs and their perspective of service quality. The views expressed by patients will help us shape service directions and plan improvement measures to continuously enhance healthcare quality in public hospitals," the HA spokesperson said.

     The first PES on 5 000 discharged inpatients of 25 public hospitals was launched in 2010. To facilitate ongoing monitoring of patient service quality, HA will continue to conduct HA-wide inpatient as well as specialist outpatient or specialty-based surveys at regular intervals to address specific areas or issues.

Ends/Friday, August 4, 2017
Issued at HKT 17:10

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