NICE publishes new quality standard and guidance on patient experience in NHS services
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NHS: National Institute For Health and Clinical Excellence
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NICE has this week published a new quality standard and guidance on patient experience in adult NHS services.
There have been a number of documents and initiatives over the past few years that have highlighted the importance of patient experience and the need to focus on improving this experience where possible. Such proposals have underlined the significance of the entire patient experience within the NHS, ensuring people are treated with compassion, dignity and respect within a clean, safe and well-managed environment.
To deliver the best possible experience for patients who use NHS services, high quality care should be clinically effective and safe. This quality standard and accompanying clinical guidance aim to ensure that patients have an excellent experience of care from the NHS.
The new quality standard for improving the quality of patient experience includes ensuring that patients are given the opportunity to discuss their health beliefs, concerns and preferences in order to individualise their care. It also states that patients have their physical needs (such as nutrition, hydration, personal hygiene and pain relief) and psychological concerns (such as fear and anxiety) assessed. In addition the standard states that patients are made aware that they have the right to choose, accept or decline treatment and these decisions are respected and supported.
Information for patients is covered in the standard on shared decision making:
"Patients are actively involved in shared decision making and supported by healthcare professionals to make fully informed choices about investigations, treatment and care that reflect what is important to them."
Quality measure
a) Evidence of local arrangements to ensure that patients are actively involved in shared decision making, including using the most effective way of communicating to maximise the patient's participation in decisions.
b) Evidence of local arrangements to ensure that patients are supported to make informed choices using risk communication and decision support, such as patient decision aids.
c) Evidence of local arrangements to ensure that information provided to facilitate shared decision making is evidence-based, understandable and clearly communicated.
Description of what the quality statement means for each audience:
• Service providers ensure that systems are in place to actively involve patients in shared decision making and to support patients to make fully informed choices about investigations, treatment and care that reflect what is important to them.
• Health and social care professionals actively involve patients in shared decision making and support patients to make fully informed choices about investigations, treatment and care that reflect what is important to them
• Commissioners ensure they commission services in which patients are actively involved in shared decision making and supported to make fully informed choices about investigations, treatment and care that reflect what is important to them.
• Patients are actively involved in shared decision making and supported to make fully informed choices about investigations, treatment and care that reflect what is important to them.
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