Patient satisfaction survey in Tuscany hospitals: the MeS Laboratory (Healthcare Management) of Sant’Anna School for Advanced Studies presents the survey results in Florence
The hospital patients’ survey data collected by the MeS Laboratory (Healthcare Management) of Sant’Anna School were presented in Florence, at the Tuscany regional council headquarters. Professor Sabina Nuti of Sant’Anna School, as the survey project manager gave Stefania Saccardi, Tuscany Region council member for healthcare management, the Tuscany survey results in addition to the national health service performance report released at the same time by the MeS Laboratory.
The surveys of patient satisfaction in Tuscany hospitals have been periodically conducted since 2004 by the the MeS Laboratory of Sant’Anna School. In the surveys the patients are asked to rate their experience in hospital admission, emergency department service, maternity services, and general medicine service. This fifth survey had almost 4.000 respondents from 35 public hospitals (90 departments) in the period November 2015 – January 2016. After discharge from the hospital the patients received a questionnaire to their home address and a freepost envelope, addressed to the MeS Laboratory originator of survey so to mail their questionnaires back.
Overall, the results are very positive. Comparing this survey results with the previous reports, the data collected show performance improvement in the regional healthcare system and the 86,3% of respondents (83,7% in 2014; 81,2% in 2011) rated the service offered as good or very good, while the percentage of patients remains stable, but it was already very high in the previous surveys, that in case of need would definitely recommend the service to family and friends (95% in 2016; 95% in 2014; 94,9% in 2011). Moreover, 83.1% of the respondents (81.1% in 2014; 78.1% in 2011) rated good or excellent the improved team work of professionals, doctors and nurses met during hospitalization.
Patients admitted to hospital have been asked to answer specific questions in different stages of the hospital admission and discharge process, about effective clinical communication, about “patient-centered care”, food quality, cleaning services, noise level, hospital pharmacy service, etc.. At regional level, data show significant improvements or at least a positive feedback, if excluding specific exceptions which are poor communication with patients on discharge procedures and poor cleaning practices.
In details, when asking feedback from hospital inpatients (admitted to hospital with a doctor’s order), the researchers found that the patients experience improved in terms of better communication with nurses and doctors on hospital admission process focusing on pathways of care (89,5% in 2016, 88,7% in 2013 e 80,9% in 2011); information on risks and benefits of treatments (91,8% in 2016, 90,1% in 2013 e 89,8% in 2011); nurses clearly answering patients questions (96,9% in 2016, 95,6% in 2013 e 97% in 2011); improving call bells response time (76,5% in 2016, 73,3% in 2013 e 75,1% in 2011); as to the respect for the patient the 93,6% of respondents reported that the doctors show positive attitude and behavior (93% in 2013 e 88,5% in 2011). The hospitalized patients also reported to have a better understanding of their plan of care and correctly identify their physicians during their hospital stay (41% in 2016, 38,4% in 2013 e 47,8% in 2011).
The patients who have completed the survey in the last 6 months complained about cleaning service (94% in 2016, 95% in 2013 e 95,4% in 2011) and poor communication on discharge process especially in case of postoperative complications (81% in 2016, 83,9% in 2013, no data available for 2011) failure in communication and information transfer on postoperative care (82% in 2016, 84,8% in 2013, no data available for 2011).
