Page 58 - HA Convention 2016 [Abstracts (Day 1)]

HOSPITAL AUTHORITY CONVENTION 2016 Service Enhancement Presentations

F2.6 Staff Engagement and Empowerment 10:45 Room 421

Patient Feedback — Experience on Specialist Outpatient Service
Wong ELY, Lui SF, Cheung AWL, Huang NF, Sze RKC, Yam CHK, Yeoh EK
The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong

Introduction

Patient experience reflects the quality of care from the perspective of patients, and is recognised as a key measure of health
services quality worldwide. Improving patient experience continues to be a top strategic priority for hospitals and health
systems.

Objectives

(1) To explore patients’ experience by adopting a locally validated tool - Specialist Outpatient Experience Questionnaire
(SOPEQ); and (2) to identify areas for improvement in delivering specialist outpatient service.

Tuesday, 3 May Methodology

A territory-wide cross-sectional survey was conducted in those attending 26 Hospital Authority (HA) specialist outpatient
clinics (SOPCs) between 11 July and 27 November 2014 by using SOPEQ. The participants must be aged 18 or above, and
be able to speak Cantonese. Attendances at paediatrics, hospice, psychiatry, dental, multi-speciality, anaesthesiology,
pathology and nurse clinics were excluded from the survey. The SOPEQ consisted of 48 evaluative items which covered 10
care aspects to codify patient experiences following the patients’ journey from making appointment to leaving the clinic. The
response to evaluative items would be converted to score with a scale of 0 (most negative experience) to 10 (most positive
experience).

Results

A total of 13,966 patients responded to the survey with a response rate of 62% and the findings were encouraging. The survey
revealed that the overall patient experience on specialist outpatient services was rated 7 and above by 84% of respondents
on the scoring scale of 0-10. The patients’ experiences were found to be similar across all the 26 HA SOPCs. However, there
was room for improvement in several aspects of patient experience including: (1) information on logistic arrangement before
and during the appointment; (2) self-introduction of healthcare professionals to patient; (3) involvement of decision making; (4)
information on self-care after leaving the clinic; and (5) information on the channels to express opinions/complaint. This study
is the first territory-wide patient experience survey on specialist outpatient service using a locally validated tool. The findings
provides a picture of patient experiences in HA SOPCs setting which is an important insight for hospital management and
frontline healthcare staff in delivering healthcare, and identifying areas for continuous improvements. The survey also serves
as an important platform for patient engagement in care process. Further study is needed to identify the underlying factors
those with relatively lower scores.

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