Inpatient online feedback in a secure setting

My name is Nigel Groves, Involvement and experience lead in forensic services at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. We have been working in partnership with Care Opinion for over 14 years to generate online patient feedback which we are really proud of. However engaging with online patient feedback has been somewhat challenging in some of our high to low secure settings, such a Rampton Hospital and Arnold Lodge Regional mental health secure unit.

In past years we have used paper forms at Rampton Hospital to collect feedback via either Care Opinion freepost feedback leaflets or using volunteers to help patients to share their stories  This was a struggle as the patients wanted something more direct to feedback to staff.  We set up Kiosk mode - Invitation links for all service areas at Rampton Hospital which did increase postings and did show that the digital way was much better for both patients and staff.

We wanted to look at ways we could increase digital access for patients in secure units and decided to work with Made Purple Ltd, which allows the patients safe direct access to Care Opinion from their secure setting. We have piloted the Made Purple Care Opinion system on our Deaf ward, PD wards and women’s services. Care Opinion on Made Purple gives our patients the opportunity to share feedback based on their experiences in a safe, confidential, and easy way.

All patients can request access to a Made Purple machine whether that be a desktop, laptop or tablet allowing us to provide equitable opportunity for all. The process is supporting us to foster a culture of transparency and collaboration between patients and staff. It is a wider reaching platform in which patient’s voices can be heard.

The response from patients at Rampton has been amazing:

I feel I need to write on here to express my sincere thanks to the IT department, but also security too, for allowing us to access the Made Purple application. It has proved to be an invaluable source of information to us (the patients). I browse on it every day and have also ordered, via family, products that are available to us. Please keep up the good work.

Read the full story on Care Opinion.

As postings are anonymous, patients can feel reassured in that they can post authentically without fear of reprisal. Equally it is a medium in which patients can share positive experiences and express appreciation and thanks.

• It is a modern and timely way of receiving feedback which allows staff and services to act responsively.
• Services can use the platform to track trends and themes in care delivery.
• Pieces of feedback can be utilised as evidence in service reporting or individuals appraisals and revalidations.

In the first instance we aspire to educate more patients and staff in the function and use of Care Opinion so that it becomes an embedded feedback source within all secure settings within the trust. We are currently formulating a plan with education aimed at getting patients online and using the technology.

Read all Rampton stories that came in via Made Purple here.