The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The Hospital Authority (HA) will launch a Patient Experience Survey (PES) next Monday (October 30) at 26 public hospitals with an aim of better understanding patients' experiences, feelings and feedback in receiving inpatient services for the purpose of continuous service improvement.
 
     The HA has commissioned the Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care of the Chinese University of Hong Kong to conduct the survey, where patients discharged from the selected hospitals will be randomly recruited for a telephone or online interview. The survey will take around six months to complete and will cover important aspects including hospital environment and facilities, hospital staff, patient care and treatment, information on leaving hospital and overall impressions.
 
     Patients' consent would be sought before commencement of the interview and the information will be handled in strict confidence. Participating patients are free to withdraw anytime from the survey in case they change their mind. Moreover, patients will not be asked to provide any personal data.
 
     The HA appeals to patients to participate in the survey. The spokesperson for the HA said, "Service improvement is an integral part of corporate governance. The HA attaches great importance to patients' views on hospital services. To continuously improve service quality, healthcare staff have to understand patients' needs. The views expressed by patients will help the HA shape service directions and plan improvement measures to continuously enhance healthcare service quality in public hospitals."
 
     The first PES on 5 000 discharged inpatients of public hospitals was launched in 2010, and since then, regular patient experience surveys regarding different services have been conducted. To facilitate the ongoing monitoring of patient service quality, the HA will continue to conduct HA-wide inpatient as well as specialist outpatient or specialty-based surveys at regular intervals, so as to discuss services of specific aspects or topics.

Ends/Tuesday, October 24, 2023
Issued at HKT 14:58

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