Care Opinion works with multiple NHS Trusts across England, here are a few case studies.
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust
'One-Year' is a lovely image of RCHT's one-year journey with Care Opinion
Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust (RCHT) started its Care Opinion journey in 2018. The Patient and Family Experience Team took over the running of the existing Care Opinion subscription in order to think about how they could transform the experience and engagement within the community.
At first, there was apprehension from staff, wondering how they could make it work. However, after some training sessions from Care Opinion and reassurance and support from colleagues within the Patient Experience team, more responders were recruited. Over time, they built up the visibility of Care Opinion within the organisation and built the case for an investment into a paid subscription.
They started with 2 responders, and 4 years on they now have 483 staff listening, over 2,500 stories told and over 65 stories that have led to a change being planned or made.
So, what do the staff like about Care Opinion?
- People can feedback about their entire care journey
- Clinical colleagues like that each healthcare service is named in a story and they can respond directly to the author
- They like that they can show when a change is planned and made as a direct result of the author's story
To find out about the amazing work they have been doing, read Royal Cornwall's blogs
You can also watch one of our research chats involving staff from Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust 'Practice/research chat 8:Implementing online patient feedback in an NHS Trust'
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (Notts Healthcare) has been using Care Opinion since 2009. Over the decade they have reached the milestone of 7,000 stories received; at last count, it was over 7,700!
Recent developments within Notts Health Care have been the use of adding the kiosk link to their System One Text system for ‘Community Health’ services such as Community Therapy Services, Community Stroke Teams & Community Nursing teams. The accessibility for patients in the community to be able to feedback quickly from their smartphones has proven very popular and has not added extra work for the community nurses as the texts get sent out automatically after appointments.
The community teams have also been championing using the invitation links embedded within QR Codes and handing out flyers and using posters for their community services.
The Adult Mental Health inpatient wards managed to source an iPad for each ward so inpatients have the choice of sending their story directly to Care Opinion as well as using the Freepost Feedback leaflets.
Within Forensic services the team has worked alongside Care Opinion's Head of Partnerships and Safeguarding, Tim Hunt to create a clear story-taking pathway for volunteers to help inpatients share their stories too.
To find out more about how they have implemented Care Opinion, read Nottinghamshire Healthcare's blogs
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust first subscribed to Care Opinion with 2 services; ICU & Cancer Services. Cancer services had great success in generating stories and also added a sub-service of the ‘Fern Centre’, where cancer patients can access holistic & alternative therapies as well as wig fittings. This work was an important stepping-stone in securing support for a Trust-wide Care Opinion subscription.
Since then the staff have launched Care Opinion within the Trust and prepared and run in-house training for ‘responders’ in each department. The Trust also had huge success using Care Opinion for their Covid-19 vaccination & testing services using the QR codes and invitation links.
Lisa Townsend, Patient Experience Team has written a fantastic blog documenting their journey from where they started, where they are now, and their next steps. Read more at Our Care Opinion journey from single service to Trust wide subscription
The trust went on to roll out Care Opinion after the merge in 2022 and have gone from strength to strength with embedding Care Opinion. They have huge support from their CEO Sam Higginson who you can hear from in the below video:
Stockport NHS Foundation Trust
As a Trust, Stockport provides both Primary and Community Care as well as serving the populations of Cheshire and the High Peak in North Derbyshire.
Their main hospital is Stepping Hill which covers a range of services including nationally-ranked stroke, urology and orthopaedic services.
Since the pandemic, Stockport has been working closely with Care Opinion to engage services with our website. They have been promoting Care Opinion in Stepping Hill’s cafeteria area, including leaflets with evening meal tray rounds, and have recently engaged a volunteer one day per week to circulate wards and engage directly with patients to encourage them to give feedback. We have extensive resources on the use of volunteers to assist with a Care Opinion Subscription which you can find on our staff and volunteer overview
We are currently working with Stockport to develop a new suite of materials with broad accessibility for people with learning difficulties which will then be reflected in the materials available to all subscribing organisations across the UK.
If your service is based anywhere in the UK and you are interested in finding out more about a subscription, then email the address below, and we will direct you to the right member of the Care Opinion team: suscribing@careopinion.org.uk