Promoting Care Opinion

Posted on behalf of Fiona MacKenzie, Dental Care Professional Manager, Glasgow Dental Hospital

Hi, my name is Fiona MacKenzie and I am the Dental Care Professional Manager at Glasgow Dental Hospital and School. I became a Care Opinion responder about a year ago.

Oral Health Directorate had been successfully using the Care Opinion platform for several years now. However, following the pandemic we wanted to make a real effort to increase the number of posts that we were receiving.

Our clinics were encouraged to attach care opinion feedback cards to patient information leaflets, we found this was a great way to share the contact details and we noticed our feedback increase as a result.

Many of our treatment rooms have a dispenser outside the door filled with care opinion cards, this allows patients and carers to pick them up very easily as they leave.

We ask our Modern Apprentice Dental Nurses to engage with patients in the waiting area, telling them about care opinion and providing a contact card. This can help student’s improve their communication skills and is a great way to develop confidence when dealing with patients, possibly for the first time.

In our staff canteen we have a noticeboard dedicated to Care Opinion posts. I print these off allowing all that use the area an opportunity to read our feedback, while they enjoy their coffee.

Each morning at our daily safety huddle I share any new feedback from care opinion with our teams, we are now finding they can get a little competitive as a result!

Staff have told me they have been able to reference feedback that has been specific to them from Care Opinion during the appraisal process. Dental Core Trainees often upload patient feedback onto their speciality training portfolio (ISCP). This can be used amongst a range of evidence to be reviewed by their Educational Supervisor and Training Programme Director.

Our Clinical Service Manager, General Manager and Clinical Director always take time to contact individuals and teams that have been named following a post. I do know that this is really appreciated by those involved.

It is vitally important for patients and carers to be able to have an opportunity to read feedback posted by others who have experience of using our service. It is equally important for us to raise awareness of the platform with our teams, encouraging them to engage with Care Opinion. Many staff have been surprised how widely the feedback on the platform is actually shared. Feedback is shared with our General Manager, Director and the MSP for the contributor’s local area, amongst many others.

It is lovely to receive a thank you letter or card from a patient, but we would certainly never be able to share our feedback quite so widely using traditional methods. A member of our team told us how she felt when she read some positive feedback that mentioned her personally “it just made me feel like I'm making a real difference to patients and gives me great job satisfaction”.

Staff have found the content so valuable in recognising the great work they do every day and our feedback encourages teams to confidently make changes and improvements.

In the last 12 months we have seen a 243% increase in the number of stories as a result of these changes!