Patient experience in the spotlight at RJAH as part of national week

Staff at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH) have celebrated the work they’re doing to make continuous improvements to patient care.

Wards and departments, at the Oswestry-based hospital, have been celebrating the work they’re doing to ensure they are delivering the highest standard of care possible for their patients, families, carers and staff, as part of Experience of Care Week.

Experience of Care Week is a national initiative supported by NHS England and NHS Improvement which ran last week, and gave us the opportunity to celebrate our great work in delivering outstanding patient experience.

A number of initiatives were highlighted during the course of the week at RJAH, which was last year ranked No 1 in the country for overall patient experience in the Adult Inpatient Survey.

These included in the Main Outpatients Department, where staff have recently introduced using a coloured egg timer during the weekly falls clinic. This involves patients having their blood pressure taken whilst sat down. They then stand for three minutes before having their blood pressure taken again to compare the difference.

Before the egg timer was introduced staff used their fob watch to measure the time, but they found this would make some patients anxious about how long they had left to stand. The idea to use an egg timer instead came from a patient’s son, who was doing this at home.

The Outpatients team have found this to be extremely beneficial, especially for patients with dementia who are attending the clinic.

On Kenyon Ward, staff have developed a welcome leaflet for patients’ arrival. One of the main aims of the leaflet is to make patients aware of sleep packs which are available to them, to ensure they have a good and comfortable night’s sleep.

Elsewhere, Clwyd Ward have allocated staff to bays so they are more visible, so patients know who exactly is looking after them.

Alison Harper, Patient Experience Manager, said: “It’s great to share what our wards and departments have been doing to celebrate Experience of Care Week. It’s often the little things that can make a big difference when it comes to caring for patients.

“We’ve also pledged our support to national and local campaigns such as End PJ Paralysis and Observe and Act to reinforce the good work that’s going on in Shropshire and to ensure we are constantly improving patients, families, carers and staff experience.”

Bev Tabernacle, Director of Nursing and Deputy Chief Executive, said: “Aspiring to deliver world class patient care is our vision here at RJAH, and in order to deliver that high standard of patient care we have to go the extra mile and make improvements to ensure our patients’ needs are catered to.

“It’s been wonderful to hear the work staff have been doing as part of Experience of Care Week.

“In September 2017 the Trust also launched its new patient experience strategy outlining its priorities to deliver ‘Always Events’ we have continued to push further to ensure we offer our patients the best possible care and experience.”