How are we doing?

Your opinion of our services and the care we provide is important to us. We have a long tradition of asking our patients how we are doing and are proud of the improvements we have made as a result of what they tell us.

At the heart of this is our How are we doing? survey, which we ask inpatients, outpatients and day surgery patients to complete.

Based on the Care Quality Commission’s National Patient Surveys which are used throughout the UK, it gives us valuable information about a wide range of issues that are important to our patients – from respect and dignity to pain control and the quality of information that we give them.

How does the Trust use the results?

Every two months, we share some of our patients’ comments – what we are doing well and what we need to improve – on posters across the Trust and here on our website.

Our current focus is on what patients think of cleanliness at the Trust.

Cleanliness at King’s

We have been working hard to improve cleaning at the Trust and patients are beginning to see a difference.

  • Since 2009 patient satisfaction with cleanliness at King's has gone up by 12%.
  • During October and November 2011 88% of our patients surveyed said they thought our wards were clean, the highest percentage ever.

However, we know that we can still improve. While the majority of our patients were happy with our cleaning standards, some thought we needed to improve more.

What we are doing well
  • "I was impressed by the general care and attention of the nurses and the cleanliness of the wards.”
  • “My experience overall was far better than I expected. The hospital was so spotless, so clean! The staff were so caring and understanding. If I hadn’t known, I would have thought I was in private care.”
What you asked us to improve
  • “Patient rooms should be checked more often for cleanliness.”
What we’ve done
  • We’ve introduced new cleaning schedules across the Trust and given priority to higher risk areas.
  • We’ve introduced a new monitoring system for nursing staff and our cleaning contractor, Medirest. This gives Medirest staff clear action plans that they must complete before each inspection. The nurse in charge of each area is responsible for ensuring the action plan is completed.
  • We’ve completely reviewed our cleaning resources and allocated extra staff to keep all inpatient areas clean.

How do I get a survey form?

  • Inpatients: a member of the ward staff will ask you if you would like to complete our survey before you leave.
  • Day surgery patients: we will give you one of our surveys to complete when you are discharged.
  • Outpatients: we are introducing a How are we doing? survey for outpatients so we may ask you if you would like to complete one when you visit one of our clinics. This is an online survey which you can complete in a variety of ways. We may ask you for your email address so we can send you a link to the survey, or you can complete it using one of our touch screen kiosks or a smart phone.
  • Dental outpatients: the Dental Hospital carries out regular surveys of patients so you may be asked to fill in a form when you visit.