The Changing NHS

Attempts to encourage NHS providers to become more responsive to consumer pressure accelerated this week with the Secretary of State for Health announcing plans for a DoH supported website that offers patients a choice of more than 200 hospitals for their elective surgery from July 07. Interestingly according to E-Health Insider, this new site will also give patients an opportunity to rate their care experience. I wonder what the folks at Patient Opinion think of this development? The not-for-profit social enterprise has been collecting patient stories for well over a year. By the way, it looks like Revolution Health is trying to get something similar 'up and running' in the States.

Whilst it's true that writing this blog has helped turn me into a bit of a ‘tech nerd’, I still have enough Organisation Development genes left in me to realize that the most important thing here isn’t the technical collection of stories and feedback data per se, but how healthcare providers actually make use of this new information.

• Will they have a sufficiently receptive organisational culture to enable them to easily accept, or even celebrate, the feedback they receive?
• Will they be capable of successfully ‘fusing’ these new sources of feedback with more local ones that they possibly (hopefully) already orchestrate?
• Will the relevant clinicians and managers be given timely access to the information received?  and if yes
• Will they be sufficiently motivated and skilled to take quick action to address the sources of customer discontent, to learn whether the changes they have made are improving things and to try new ideas if the answer is no?

In short, can NHS Trusts become organisations that are sufficiently permeable to customer experience?

Steve

www.stevepashley.co.uk