Using Patient Opinion in commissioning: a recap

Sharing best practice is an important part of what we do at Patient Opinion. Sam Holden, the Patient Experience Lead at South Devon and Torbay CCG, hosted our guest Webinar to share his experience of using PO from a commissioner’s perspective. Sam talked passionately on a range of topics from provider involvement to responding to postings.

We feel that the inspiring session can provide invaluable insight for commissioners and providers alike. If you missed out, don’t worry! You can view the recorded Webinar here, or see our summary below:

Provider buy-in

The audience were interested in how you get providers on board and committed to using Patient Opinion.  

Sam responded by saying that working in partnership, and not simply telling providers what to do, is key.

The CCG and their providers form a patient experience network, where they collaborate and discuss both postings and responses on PO. The CCG sets targets: for minimally critical postings, the CCG have a target response time of seven days. For more serious postings, they like to see a response on the same day.

The importance of a good relationship between commissioner and provider is crucial – Sam visited each of his counterparts within the CCG’s provider organisations face to face when he started in the role. The importance of breaking down the provider/commissioner split helps PO have a wider impact.  This helps everyone to share the value of generating, responding to and learning from patient stories.

Monitoring and responding

Sam and his team are set up to receive email alerts to new postings, and will log each new story as it comes in. This is important for the CCG for instances where a posting may result in an offline conversation.

The CCG are clear that generic ‘please contact us’ responses are not adequate. Their aim is to be more involved, and explain what should have happened in the situation and what went wrong, even if it is hard to discover precise details. Sam notes that around 85% of authors won’t follow up with direct contact, but feels this is in part due to the success of responding well and solving the author’s issue.  Sometimes people need to feel that they have been listened to and taken seriously.  It’s important that people realise that this does not replace complaints which remains an important right for patients. But it does give another way for people to have their say.

The personalisation of responses is also an important issue. Sam advocates responding from a named person, including a photograph if possible. The CCG are is encouraging clinicians to respond, which has worked well and had a positive impact on patients. Commissioning managers are now also responding on the site.

Being different

The CCG has started a quality committee, which focuses on a specific provider each time. The committee will look at PO stories and see whether they have been positive or negative. They also explore recurring themes and make plans going forward as to how they can use this information to improve.

South Devon and Torbay have ‘made PO everybody’s business’. This includes using stories in different ways, such as commissioning meetings, and displaying comments on notice boards. The CCG are is also embedding our story telling widget, which will allow visitors to read stories or leave feedback without leaving their the CCG website.

You Said, We Did

The CCG has recently started a quality report, which has a ‘You Said, We Did’ section. This summarises stories received, and outlines what action they have taken. In the near future, they will start publishing the report on their website every two months.

It is important for the CCG that Patient Opinion is seen as a rich source of information. Sam feels that the anonymity of Patient Opinion means that people are more candid, honest and ‘more real’.

Reporting

Sam explained the value of Patient Opinion reports, and how they can be used to provide an overview of the type of feedback being received. For example, reports can be produced on a particular provider, or a particular timescale.

The stories summary report is shared with providers every two months. Here, the providers are made aware of the number of stories being received, and can analyse the content and quality of responses.

Sam said he was pleased that recently, one of the CCG’s acute trusts used the information on the reports as an opportunity to reduce the amount of negative feedback they were receiving.

What’s next?

The CCG are raising awareness of Patient Opinion in a number of ways, such as taking freepost leaflets to events, and displaying on screens at GP surgeries in the area.

A mental health provider in the area is doing this in an innovative way by providing computer stations on location. The computers will have constant access to PO, which means users can leave feedback in almost real time.

The Patient Opinion team would like to send their huge thanks to Sam for taking the time to share, and also thank those who attended the Webinar.

If you have any thoughts or questions, please feel free to respond to the blog post using the link below. Alternatively you can respond directly to Sam’s blog here.

Keep your eyes peeled for some more exciting guest Webinars in future…