Hospital Authority commences new round of Patient Experience Survey

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The Hospital Authority (HA) will launch a Patient Experience Survey (PES) next Monday (October 14) at 27 public hospitals with an aim of better understanding patients' experiences, feelings and feedback in receiving inpatient services for the purpose of continuous service improvements from patients' perspectives. 
 
     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 interview. The survey will take around six months to complete and will cover important aspects including hospital environments and facilities, hospital staff, patient care and treatment, information on leaving the hospital and overall impressions.
 
     Patients' consent would be sought before commencement of the telephone interview and personal data will be handled in strict confidence. Participating patients are free to withdraw anytime from the survey in case they change their mind.
 
     The HA appeals to patients to participate in the survey. The spokesperson for the HA stressed the importance of service improvement as an integral part of corporate governance, as well as patients' views on hospital services. To continuously improve HA services, healthcare staff must understand patients' needs and their perspective of service quality. The views expressed by patients will help the HA shape service directions and plan improvement measures to continuously enhance healthcare quality in public hospitals.
 
     The first PES on 5 000 discharged inpatients of public hospitals was launched in 2010. 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.