Celebrating 4 years of Care Opinion at SHSCT

My name is Mairead Casey and I work along side Christine Armstrong in the Patient/Client Experience Team in the Southern Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland, with a specific remit for the implementation of Care Opinion across the Trust. Since the regional launch of Care Opinion in August 2020, we have been working extensively with teams across the Trust to embed a culture of feedback by facilitating the wide spread implementation of Care Opinion.

We are indebted to our Regional Lead as well as our Chief Executive and Senior Leadership Team for their commitment, direction and support to ensure that every person who uses our services has the opportunity to “tell their story”. We would also like to thank staff, service users, patients and carers for supporting us with the implementation of Care Opinion –

To date the Trust has received 12,140 stories, and these stories have been read on the Care Opinion platform 897,039 times.

We are delighted that a large number of these stories have been positive, with 92% of stories rated criticality 0/1. Equally we are grateful to learn and identify improvements that can be made from the feedback that we have received. To ensure that staff know what feedback is received regarding their service, or themselves, we encourage the sharing of stories with staff members.

We are also in the process of implementing a bespoke Care Opinion board into every ward, which will also be utilised for the sharing of all feedback received. In addition, we are currently working on a pilot with our GREATix team, where we anticipate that every positive story that mentions a staff member by name, will be nominated for a GREATix award. This is in line with the principle of GREATix, where staff can nominate another staff member or team for a GREATix, when they observe practice that reflect our Trust values. The number of GREATix awards issued will then be incorporate into Trust reports, recognising excellence and learning from these examples.

When improvements have been made, in relation to feedback, these are noted these on the Care Opinion platform as a change planned or a change made – there have been some wonderful examples over the past few years. When reflecting on these changes, we have learnt that it is often small things that make a big difference and have a positive influence on experience for our patients, service users and their families. There are 211 changes/made within the Trust directly as a result of Care Opinion Feedback. Examples include:-

• Posting on social media to advise where expectants mothers go after hours to gain entry to hospital as well as a map being include in each expectant mother file that they hold - Good to see a familiar face but better drop off access needed | Care Opinion
• Map to advise of location of two CT Scanners which now included in all appointment letters - Signage to department | Care Opinion
• Improved signage between our Xray and fracture clinic – Older people getting lost in the Hospital | Care Opinion
• New uniforms for Speech and Language Therapists being planned - Visit to speech and language therapist | Care Opinion
• Improved procedure and signage for Contraception Clinic - Contraceptive clinic | Care Opinion
• Improved signage from x-ray dept to fracture clinic - Older people getting lost in the Hospital | Care Opinion

Tracking trends and themes through stories

As well as receiving individual experiences of care, the Care opinion platform also allows the story author to share key words about their experience, what was good; what could be improved; how did they feel. This allows us to further analysis the feedback and establish trends.

What was good?

How did you feel?

What could be improved?