Monitoring and improving the quality of clinical services are increasingly important concerns for management. As part of the associated programme, it is necessary to monitor patients' perceptions of the quality of nuclear medicine services delivered, compared to the service standards. Such activities can also provide a means of driving quality improvement.
Current Work: To obtain a large and representative sample, survey forms are convenient to use but are recognised to have deficiencies related to their context of use. We have attempted to overcome some of these by the overall study design used. A survey form enquiring into all aspects of published service quality standards was designed, piloted and has been used for three repeated parallel surveys of nuclear medicine services provided at 13 hospitals in the north of England. The parallel approach means that it has been possible to compare actual perceptions of service quality between hospitals subscribing to the same standards.
Repetition of the surveys has made it possible to determine that overall standards were being maintained and improvements made successfully. Thus significant improvements were reported, e.g. in promptness of action at the appointment time, respect for privacy and explanation for any delays, while standards in other aspects were maintained. Where results at a particular hospital were significantly worse than the regional average, the hospital staff concerned were asked to make action plans to remedy deficiencies. As a result, action has been taken by staff and hospital management towards rectification of the defects.
Conclusion: We conclude that once the mechanisms are established and accepted, repeated parallel patient surveys are a convenient and acceptable method for monitoring the patient's viewpoint of service quality. The ability of parallel surveys to provide local comparisons probably helps to motivate staff to remedy defects and hence promote continuous improvement.
Williams ED, Blair R, Knight AC. Repeated parallel patient surveys: their usefulness for improving nuclear medicine service quality. European Journal of Nuclear Medicine 1999, 26, 1046. (Oral presentation at EANM Congress in Barcelona).
Professor E. David Williams, Sunderland Unit, Sunderland. Tel: +44 (0)191-569-9035.
Regional Medical Physics Department, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE7 7DN, UK.
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