HealthManagement, Volume 15, Issue 1, 2013
A revolutionary new smartphone app designed by Birmingham Children's Hospital - the first of its type in the NHS - is making patient and family feedback quicker, easier and more effective than ever before.
The Birmingham Children’s Hospital Feedback app has been designed to enable children, young people and families to interact with the hospital in an innovative new way to send their thoughts and comments directly to the ward or area they have visited with the simple click of a button.
Patients and families may be waiting in Outpatients when they leave a comment, they may be an inpatient sending the third comment of their admission or they might even be at home - the app gives the flexibility to feed back at any time.
The message, which is anonymous, goes straight to the manager in charge so it can be addressed in real-time, and as part of the hospital’s commitment to openness and transparency the feedback is also made publicly available on the hospital's website.
Michelle McLoughlin, Chief Nurse, has been leading the project. She said: "We’re always looking for ways to improve how we receive feedback because what happens to our children, young people and families really matters to us and we want to get it right first time, every time…The app enables us to gather feedback in a way that our patients and families want to give it so we know immediately what we are getting right and what we need to improve to make their time with us the best it can be.”
Developed in partnership with Digital Life Sciences, the delivery partner behind NHS Local, and supported by NHS Midlands and East, the app was trialled in two areas before being rolled out across the Trust.
The app also features a ratings function, in line with the national Friends and Family test, which enables the hospital to take an instant snapshot of how likely patients and families say they would be to recommend the hospital as a place to be treated. This information, alongside the messages and comments, is collated, reviewed and analysed to pick up any emerging themes or issues from which action can be taken.
As the first organisation to develop a feedback app of this kind, Birmingham Children’s Hospital is keen to work with other Trusts who may be interested in implementing the app in their organisations.
For
more information, please visit: www.bch.nhs.uk/feedback
