Following on from National Public Health week, which is recognized at the start of every April, we’ve taken a look at how survey software is being used by healthcare organisations such as the NHS.
NHS Trusts are required to collect feedback and conduct assessments on patients and staff, as well as undertaking a range of audits and research projects. The wide range of questionnaires and surveys that each NHS Trust needs to complete can be complicated to administer. It’s often difficult and time consuming to collate responses, analyse them, and determine useful insights and develop ongoing improvements from the data.
Survey Software for Healthcare
Healthcare organisations, such as NHS Trusts, use survey software in a range of different ways to undertake these surveys.
- Email and text invitations can be automatically sent out to gather feedback from patients and staff, and automated reminder invitations can increase response rates.
- Email alerts are set-up so that key members of staff or specific teams receive notifications about survey responses. This enables them to take action immediately.
- Automated, personalized reports present up-to-date information whenever they’re accessed, providing insights and recommendations.
- Multi-format surveys – surveys can be created and distributed online, on mobile phones, tablets, kiosks, or on paper, making it easier for a range of respondents to access and complete them.
- Anonymous data collection and reporting allows patients and staff to give honest feedback.
NHS Friends and Family Test
It’s essential that the Friends and Family Test (FFT) is easy to distribute and simple for patients to access and complete. Survey software can be used to ask patients to rate how likely they are to recommend the services they’ve used, and include at least one follow-up question with the opportunity for a free text response.
Once the FFT is set-up, it can be distributed automatically via email, text, tablets, and kiosks, and via paper surveys – different formats can be used dependent on each service’s audience, with some using a combination to reach more patients.
Responses can be collected anonymously, and formatted ready to share with NHS England. Survey software can also produce automated reports for each service, and NHS Trust so that they can understand where their patient experience needs to be improved.
Clinical Audits
Survey software can be used to streamline the data collection involved in a clinical audit – making it easier to check that healthcare services are being provided in line with standards. Staff can easily input data, and reports can be automated and distributed as necessary; highlighting areas that are doing well, and how to improve the service.
NHS Healthcare surveys
NHS Trusts use survey software for a number of other questionnaires, survey and data collection purposes, including:
- Staff surveys
- Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs)
- Clinical trials
- Community mental health surveys
- Dental patient experience surveys
- Doctor/Consultant revalidation
- Estate management and facilities planning surveys
- Fraud surveys
NHS Trust Survey Software Case Study
Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust is using Snap Survey Software to coordinate their Friends and Family test, clinical audits, annual surveys, and ad hoc surveys. By using survey software, Gloucestershire Care Services are able to gather more responses, and achieve greater insights into their services, patient experiences, and staff satisfaction.
