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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The Hospital Authority (HA) Board today (September 26) discussed and endorsed the hospital-based Patient Satisfaction (Experience) Survey (PSS), which will be launched in October to gather feedback from patients regarding public hospital services.
The HA spokesman said that the experience of patients is a key feature of quality improvement in modern healthcare delivery. "The HA launched its first Benchmark PSS on 5 000 discharged inpatients of 25 public hospitals in 2010. To facilitate ongoing monitoring, we will conduct corporate-wide Benchmark Survey at regular intervals, and in between there will be hospital-based PSS and specialty-based PSS to address specific areas or issues."
"To enable more frequent monitoring of service and enrich understanding from the patient's perspective, a short version questionnaire has been developed for the hospital-based PSS. The School of Public Health and Primary Care of the Chinese University of Hong Kong has been appointed as an independent body to conduct this survey. As a start, a medium scale survey (3 600 patients) involving seven major acute hospitals from the seven clusters, will be launched next month (October) (List of hospitals in Appendix). Upon smooth running of the survey, the hospital-based PSS will be extended to other public hospitals," the spokesman added.
"Random sampling will be adopted to recruit patients to the survey. Selected patients will be contacted via telephone after discharge from public hospitals. Follow-up interviews will be carried out with patients' consent. Their personal data will be handled in strict confidence. Patients are free to withdraw anytime from the survey in case they change their minds."
The spokesman appeals to patients to actively participate in the survey, which will enable the HA to better understand patients' experiences in public hospitals, their needs and expectations. The views expressed by patients will help the HA shape service directions and plan improvement measures to continuously enhance healthcare quality in public hospitals.
Ends/Thursday, September 26, 2013
Issued at HKT 18:31
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