***********************************************************
The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The Hospital Authority today (December 18) announced that it would launch its first HA-wide Patient Satisfaction Survey (PSS) later this month (December) which is a flagship project aimed at engaging patients' feedback for service quality improvement in public hospitals.
Hospital Authority Director (Quality and Safety) Dr Leung Pak-yin appealed to public hospital patients to actively voice their opinions in the survey which would, in turn, help the authority improve its policies and services. "Internationally, patient satisfaction survey has become an important and useful tool to collect and gauge patients' feedback. This first PSS in Hong Kong public hospital system will help us prioritise quality improvement activities in accordance with patients' views and needs."
The School of Public Health and Primary Care of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has been appointed to independently conduct this survey in 25 acute and extended care hospitals under the Hospital Authority (Appended list). The survey is to be implemented by phases until the third quarter of 2010. Phase 1 of the survey involving 500 patients is scheduled to begin in the week starting from Monday (December 21). Phase 2 of the survey involving 5,000 patients will start in June 2010.
"The PSS will be centrally co-ordinated by the Hospital Authority Head Office. A task force with representatives from the seven hospital clusters and patient groups had been working on the survey for almost a year to steer its implementation. Through a systemic approach, the survey will enable the Hospital Authority and its seven hospital clusters to establish a structured mechanism to gauge patients' views and construct improvement action plans according to patients' needs," Dr Leung said.
"Stratified random sampling will be employed to recruit patients to the study. Selected patients will be contacted by authority staff via telephone after discharge from public hospitals. With their consent, patient data, including name, contact telephone number, date of discharge etc, will be transferred to CUHK for follow-up interviews using a standardised questionnaire. All patient data will be handled in strict confidence with their identities kept anonymous. To further reassure our patientsˇ¦ rights, they are free to withdraw anytime from the study if they change their mind."
In the face of rapid advancement in technologies, Hong Kong people and patients nowadays have more and more channels to access new information on diseases and treatment modalities.
"Healthcare professionals need to understand the changing patients' demographics and better appreciate their healthcare needs, rising public expectations, and the importance of fostering closer partnership with patients in the formulation and implementation of effective treatment plans and healthcare policies."
"Through the PSS, we will be able to develop a mechanism to systematically elicit and monitor patients' perception, satisfaction, concerns and expectations in specific areas of service delivery during their hospital stay. These include waiting time for admission; cleanliness and comfort of the physical hospital setting; food quality; mechanism for handling dissatisfaction; staff attitude and interpersonal relationship with healthcare providers; as well as treatment co-ordination."
"The PSS will provide the Hospital Authority with vital information for health service quality improvement to meet patients' needs. Over time, public hospitals will be able to benchmark their own services and progress of improvement," Dr Leung said.
Ends/Friday, December 18, 2009
Issued at HKT 12:24
NNNN