Impact of patient experience data on acute NHS hospital trusts
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring the impact of patient experience data in acute NHS hospital trusts in England: using Actor-Network Theory to optimise organisational strategies and practices for improving patients’ experiences of care
IRAS ID
188882
Contact name
Glenn Robert
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 5 months, 31 days
Research summary
Patients’ and carers’ experiences of hospital care are an important aspect of healthcare quality. In the NHS, whether as part of internal and external quality inspections or regulatory processes, information about the quality of patients’ experiences is collected continually in various ways. This information is also known as patient experience data and it is collected through a variety of tools, for example questionnaires (including the National Patient Experience Survey), simple questions (including the nationally required ‘Friends & Family test’ –FFT), formal and informal complaints and compliments, digital hand-held devices given to patients on wards (‘real-time’ data), and written accounts or video/audio recordings of patient stories recorded through face-to-face interviews, patient/public websites (including NHS Choices, Patient Opinion), and/or social media.
Recent research has highlighted that despite the vast quantity of information that is collected about patients’ experiences and which is available to NHS organisations, it is not clear how this information is used to plan and achieve improvement in the quality of care.
This study will explore how patient experience data translate into quality improvements in acute NHS hospital services. Given that in NHS organisations nurses (whether in senior managerial or frontline roles) are often responsible for improving the patient experience on the basis of what patient experience data reveal, the study will pay particular attention to the role of nurses.
The study is organised in two phases. In Phase 1 we will use a research approach that focuses on the tools used to capture information on patient experience to study the journeys and the impact on practice of patient experience data in four NHS hospitals in England. In each of these hospitals we will examine the journeys of patient experience data in the context of two clinical services - dementia and cancer care – to explore similarities and differences between services. In Phase 2 we will hold a set of meetings with hospital managers, frontline staff, and patients and carers from the four hospitals involved in the study to discuss the findings from Phase 1 and develop practical recommendations for NHS managers, clinical staff, policymakers and patients.
The study will generate important new understandings and recommendations at three different levels
of healthcare services: 1) everyday practices - it will help us to understand what difference the collection of patient experience data actually makes to patients' and carers' experiences; 2) organisational management - it will provide information on the managerial resources and limitations that influence the impact of patient experience data on NHS services; 3) policy – it will look at how strategies and practices at levels 1 and 2 are shaped by national healthcare policies.REC name
London - London Bridge Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/1478
Date of REC Opinion
1 Aug 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion