University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) completed a merger by acquisition of Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT) on 1st April 2018. Due to historical differences in data collection/reporting across UHB and the former Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust this response has been provided by hospital site.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital
- How many compliments did your trust receive in 2017?
2100 compliments
- Do you have a procedure for handling compliments?
Yes we have a robust process in place which is managed by the Patient Experience Team. An electronic database is used to log compliments and accessed by the Patient Experience Team and the Patient Advice and Liaison (PALS) Team for this purpose. Staff in wards and departments are encouraged to forward details weekly to the Patient Experience Team of any compliments received directly by them so they can be logged. Compliments are also received directly by the Chief Executive’s Office, PALS and the Patient Experience Team; all of which are logged.
- Do you respond to the authors?
Thank you cards received directly by wards and departments are not formally acknowledged (although may be verbally acknowledged at the time received). Letters received directly by wards and departments would usually be acknowledged by the ward/department manager if contact details have been provided. All compliment letters sent to Trust Headquarters are formally acknowledged in writing. A number of compliments are emailed directly to PALS/Patient Experience Team all of which are acknowledged.
- Do you pass the compliments onto to the complimentees?
Compliments are shared with the senior management team of the ward/departments (s) mentioned. Where staff or teams are named individually the compliment will be forwarded to them directly.
- Do management see copies of compliments?
Yes, where compliments are shared, the senior managers are also included, they also receive reports including compliments and all staff have access to the Patient Experience dashboard where other anonymised positive feedback (e.g. from surveys) is shared.
- Do you analyse the content of compliments?
Yes, compliments are categorised and analysed
Heartlands, Good Hope and Solihull Hospital
- How many compliments did your trust receive in 2017?
158 compliments are recorded on the Trust’s system. However, compliments are received in many areas across the Trust from the CEO’s office to the ward directly in the form of small gifts and cards; the latter type of compliment is not recorded on a Trust system.
- Do you have a procedure for handling compliments?
Where compliments are received centrally in the Patient Relations team, they are logged on the Trust system (Datix). The letter is scanned and sent to the relevant heads of department.
A large number of compliments are also received through the Friends and Family Test feedback. These are all logged and made available to relevant Trust staff.
- Do you respond to the authors?
Yes, a letter of thanks is sent either from the Senior Executive’s office of receipt or from the Patient Relations team if a compliment is either sent directly to this department or if praise is ever mentioned in a letter of complaint, thanks will be offered for their kind words about that particular aspect.
- Do you pass the compliments onto to the complimentees?
Yes
- Do management see copies of compliments?
Yes
- Do you analyse the content of compliments?
The positive aspects of Friends and Family Test (FFT) are analysed.
