83% of patients attending Tullamore Hospital had a good or very good experience

Today is World Patient Safety Day and Tullamore Hospital has launched a new campaign to mark it

placeholder image — Today is World Patient Safety Day and Tullamore Hospital has launched a new campaign to mark it

83% of patients who attended the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore reported a a good or very good experience.

The Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore has just received its results for the National Inpatient Experience Survey for 2022.

Eligible patients who were discharged from Tullamore Hospital during the month of May 2022, were invited by invitation to participate in the survey. The detailed survey consisted of 67 questions, covering experiences from admission through to discharge during their recent stay in Tullamore Hospital in order to find out what was working well, and where improvements could be made.

Positively the 2022 National Patient Experience Survey found that 83% of patients attending Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore say they had a good or a very good experience. In all areas of this year’s survey the Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore scored above or similar to the national average for all survey questions. This included how the hospital and its staff dealt with admissions and discharges and also in terms of how medical staff diagnosed, treated and cared for patients during their hospital stay.

One patient remarked “At every single step where hospital staff interacted with me they were kind, caring, considerate and helpful – way above what any reasonable person should expect. This includes security staff etc. but nursing staff were outstanding. Their patience and thoughtfulness was flabbergasting and made a worrying time much easier and more manageable for me. (During the pandemic)!”

Commenting Clare Conway, Quality & Patient Safety Manager at Tullamore Hospital said, “A number of areas for improvement were identified as a result of last year’s survey and these included better communication between patients and staff along with better management of both admission and discharge procedures. We have used the 2022 results to develop quality improvement plans, to ensure patients’ priorities are being addressed.”As a result of the findings of the 2022 Patients Survey in Tullamore the following new measures will be introduced.

Communication

·Open disclosure training is ongoing throughout the hospital, as of December 2022 - 81% of staff have undertaken the training, + 58% on the period before.

·A new Communication Officer has been appointed to improve communication channels within the hospital.

·A new Patient Advocacy Liaison has been appointed to provide liaison services for patients, carers and visitors helping us to continually identify areas where we can improve the level of care experienced.

Discharge

. Improved procedures will be developed to improve communication on discharge around medication side effects and danger signals.

·Continued collaboration with the recently appointed Medication Safety Pharmacist to improve information about drug safety provided to patients when they are leaving the hospital.

·Introduction of a new quality improvement plan which continues to monitor discharges.

·A new discharge committee is to be set up in 2023 to improve communication between hospital staff and family members when the patient is being discharged.

·The Integrated Unscheduled Care Committee was re-established and meet weekly to facilitate integrated community and hospital services for hospital discharges.