Specialist outpatient services receive positive rating from nearly 90 per cent of respondents in patient experience survey
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The Hospital Authority (HA) Board Meeting today (December 15) discussed and endorsed the Report of "Patient Experience Survey on Specialist Outpatient Service 2021". Nearly 90 per cent of respondents expressed a positive response in the survey. The survey was conducted during the COVID-19 epidemic which posed serious challenges to public healthcare services. Nonetheless, healthcare staff's professionalism and unwavering efforts in providing quality service had won patients' continuous recognition, support and trust.
The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care of the Faculty of Medicine of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (JCSPHPC) was commissioned by the HA to conduct the survey from August 2021 to January 2022. Around 13 300 randomly selected patients attending 26 selected Specialist Out-patient Clinics (SOPCs) were interviewed over phone. The survey examined the core dimensions of patient care, covering the patient journey from "before the appointment" to "post appointment". To keep abreast with the changes in clinical service model and the increasing popularity of the mobile application "HA Go", new survey items, such as SOPC arrangements under the COVID-19 epidemic, the use of "HA Go", new facilities of SOPCs, and community support services, were added in the questionnaire of the survey.
The Principal Investigator of the survey, Professor Eliza Wong of JCSPHPC, said that the findings revealed that nearly 90 per cent of the respondents had an overall experience response rating of 7 or above (along a scoring scale of 0 to 10) for SOPC services. The mean score of the overall experience across the 26 SOPCs was 7.9, which is the same as that of a similar survey in 2018.
In the survey, the areas with positive evaluation given by the interviewed patients include "doctors' listening to patients' views", "provision of clear information on how to take the medications and their purposes", "being treated with respect and dignity" and "privacy protected during treatment".
"However, there is still room for improvement in some care aspects, such as 'information on estimated waiting time', 'patients' involvement in decision making about care and treatment', and 'provision of post-discharge information on danger signals to watch for and contact information'," Professor Wong said.
The Chief Manager (Patient Relations and Engagement), Ms Fion Lee, was deeply grateful to patients for their positive rating in the survey in recognition of healthcare staff's effort and contribution. "Patients' feedback helps us understand their needs and expectations, so that the HA can better plan for improvement and provide patient-centred service. The HA will carefully study the survey findings for continuous quality improvement for specialist out-patient services," Ms Lee said.
In addition, the HA will continue to push forward "Smart Healthcare" and the development of "Smart Hospitals" to improve patient experiences, which include the enhancement of functions and operation interface of the mobile application "HA Go", and the application of new technology to reduce patients' waiting time at clinics.
Regular surveys will continue to be carried out by the HA to assess the quality of public health services, help map the service development direction and formulate improvement measures.
Members of the public are welcome to browse the full report of the survey, which can be accessed online under "Special Reports" in the "Corporate News" section of the HA website (www.ha.org.hk).
Ends/Thursday, December 15, 2022
Issued at HKT 17:10
Issued at HKT 17:10
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