Hospital Authority launches a 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 (the Survey) next Monday (August 9) at its 26 Specialist Outpatient Clinics (SOPC) with an aim of better understanding patients' experience, feeling and feedback in receiving SOPC service for the purpose of continuous service improvement from patients' perspective. 
 
     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 attended the selected SOPCs will be randomly recruited for a telephone interview. The Survey will take around six months to complete and will cover important aspects including (1) Efficiency; (2) Environment and Facilities; (3) Doctor-patient Relations; and (4) Feedback Handling.
 
     Patients' consent would be sought before commencement of the telephone interview and personal data will be handled in strict confidence. Patients are free to withdraw anytime from the Survey in case they change their mind. The survey staff will identify themselves and leave their contact telephone numbers for verification if needed.
 
     The HA appeals to patients to actively participate in the Survey. The spokesperson for the HA also stresses 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 have to 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 Survey on 5 000 discharged inpatients of 25 public hospitals was launched in 2010. To facilitate 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.