Patient satisfaction – how do we rate?
Queensland Health has recently completed a patient satisfaction survey in 74 of its major hospitals. A state wide report on results has been prepared and this is available for viewing to hospitals and the public by following the link below.
A Technical Report providing information on the survey process and interpretation of results has been prepared to accompany the State report. This can be accessed by following the link below.
The State-wide Patient Satisfaction Survey Technical Report 2005
Your hospital experience is important to us.
Queensland Health is the state's leading health care provider, and the largest single health care network in Australia, with 200 public hospitals, 70 community health campuses and 21 aged care facilities.
The satisfaction of our patients is a key component in delivering quality health care. Queensland Health is committed to regularly reviewing its services to ensure they are responsive to your health needs. One way to achieve this is to randomly survey our patients about the services they have received in our hospitals.
A list of commonly asked questions and answers were compiled to assist patients with their enquiries during the survey period.
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Question
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Answer
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| 1. | What's the point of this survey? | The satisfaction of our patients is a key component in delivering quality health care. We need to find out whether patients are satisfied with the care provided so we can prioritise where any changes may be needed and then develop plans to improve the quality of our services. This survey collects information about satisfaction directly from patients, from 76 hospitals across the state, so we are able to get a comprehensive and reliable measure of the levels of satisfaction both at a state-wide and hospital level. |
| 2. | How confidential is the information that I provide? | Because we are part of the government, we're covered by privacy legislation that does not allow us to keep names or addresses attached to any information that is provided by you in this survey. Therefore, the individuals who participate cannot be identified or linked with the responses they provide. |
| 3. | What if the patient can not fill out the questionnaire? | If a patient cannot complete the questionnaire a family member/friend may do so on their behalf. Please ensure that Question 45 (asking who filled out the questionnaire) is completed at the end of the survey. |
| 4. | My child is not 18 and the survey was sent directly to them. Why wasn't it sent to a parent or guardian? | The ethical age for being requested to participate in research is 14, according to the professional standards of Market Research Society of Australia. If the patient is over 14 years of age they are able to respond to the survey on their own, however they may require some assistance from a parent/guardian. |
| 5. | I have been asked to complete a survey but do not wish to. |
Thank you for your time. There is no requirement to complete the questionnaire. An automatic reminder letter will be sent to all patients who do not reply - please disregard that letter. |
| 6. | Why did I receive the questionnaire? | One way to measure satisfaction is to randomly survey our patients about the services they have recently received in our hospitals. The 76 largest public hospitals in Queensland are participating in this patient satisfaction survey covering the time period Dec 2004 - May 2005. You have been sent the questionnaire because you were a patient of one of these hospitals during this time period. |
| 7. | Where did you get my name? | Patients have been selected from records provided by the hospitals. The survey records only include the names and contact details of those patients who have agreed to be contacted to provide feedback on the care they received whilst in hospital. All information is confidential. At the end of the survey, all patient information will be destroyed. |
| 8. | Can you remove my name from the database? | Please phone Roy Morgan Research on 1800 337 332 and provide your details and they will remove you from the data base for this survey. You can contact the hospital directly and advise them if you do not want to be included in future surveys. |
| 9. | I have received a reminder letter but have already sent back the questionnaire. | Every effort has been made to prevent reminders being sent to those who have already responded. However, due to time lags in the post, it is quite possible that your questionnaire was received after the cut off date on which the list of reminders was processed. Please disregard the reminder letter. |
| 10. | I heard about the survey and would like to participate – Can you send me a questionnaire? | As this is a survey of randomly selected patients, only those who have been selected in the sample will be asked to complete questionnaires. This will help to ensure that results are an unbiased representation of our patients' views. If you have not been asked to participate in this survey, but would like to provide specific feedback on your hospital stay, you can contact your hospital directly. |
| 11. | Why do you need to know my age, country of birth, language spoken etc.? | This type of information is important so we can ensure that we have surveyed a representative cross-section of the population. It also allows us to identify any differences in the types of responses we get between different groups. For example: older and younger people, people who speak English and those who don't. |
| 12. | Why are you asking about indigenous origin? | The health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people tends to be different from that of the rest of the population. We don't know which responses are from Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people unless we ask. |
Participating hospitals
The following hospitals participated in the survey to measure patient satisfaction:
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Participating Hospitals
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| Atherton | Goondiwindi | Mt Isa |
| Ayr | Gympie | Nambour |
| Bamaga | Hervey Bay | Nanango |
| Barcaldine | Hughenden | Normanton |
| Beaudesert | Ingham | Prince Charles |
| Biloela | Innisfail | Princess Alexandra |
| Bowen | Ipswich | Proserpine |
| Boonah | Kingaroy | QE II |
| Bundaberg | Laidley | Redcliffe |
| Caboolture | Logan | Redlands |
| Cairns | Longreach | Rockhampton |
| Caloundra | Mackay | Roma |
| Charleville | Maleny | Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital |
| Charters Towers | Mareeba | Royal Children's Hospital |
| Cherbourg | Maryborough | Sarina |
| Chinchilla | Mater Adult | St George |
| Clermont | Mater Children's | Stanthorpe |
| Cloncurry | Mater Mother's | Toowoomba |
| Cunnamulla | Miles | Townsville |
| Dalby | Monto | Tully |
| Emerald | Moranbah | Warwick |
| Esk | Mornington Island | Weipa |
| Gatton | Mossman | Wynnum |
| Gladstone | Mount Morgan | Yeppoon |
| Gold Coast | Murgon | |
Patients surveyed
The sample included day surgery and overnight patients from seventy-four Public Hospitals across Queensland. It included people who received services in the areas of Medical, Surgical and Maternity Services.
How did Queensland Health choose the patients that were sent a survey form?
Patients were randomly selected from records provided by the hospitals. The sample selection was designed to include only those patients who had agreed to be contacted to provide feedback on the care they received whilst in hospital. For this survey we selected patients who received hospital care in the six month period of December 2004 – May 2005.
When were surveys forwarded to patients?
Surveys were sent by mail to patients in six batches.
The first surveys were sent out in March, and then further surveys were mailed out at monthly intervals with the last surveys posted in August. Reminder letters were sent out approximately one week after the survey was sent.
The survey was completed at the end of September.
What happens to the results of the survey?
Survey results were forwarded to participating hospitals in mid December 2005. Hospitals were asked to review the data to identify successes and areas for improvement in their service delivery.
The information obtained in the survey will also be used in a process called ‘Benchmarking' where hospitals compare their results with similar hospitals so that they can learn from each other. The information obtained from the reports is also helpful in strategic and operational planning at all levels and can assist us in ensuring that we are meeting the health needs of the public.
Confidentiality
All survey responses will be kept confidential. Hospitals will not know the identity of patients who respond to the survey and the reports produced with the information obtained from the survey will not contain any information that could identify an individual patient.
Patient's contact details that have been used to conduct the survey will be destroyed on completion of the survey.
How can I keep up to date on what is happening?
The Survey Team will update this web site regularly to inform everyone on what is happening. You can also contact any of the participating hospitals for information. If you have a specific question you can contact the project team by email on: patientsatisfactionsurveys@health.qld.gov.au
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© The State of Queensland (Queensland Health) 2008.
