 
West Lothian Healthcare NHS Trust |
NHS West Lothian
Overview
NHS Lothian's University Hospitals Division (UHD) provides a comprehensive range of acute adult and children's services to the population of Edinburgh and the Lothians, and more specialised health services for patients from all over Scotland.
The division's 13,000 staff are committed to delivering the highest quality of care to patients. The three main hospital sites are; The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh at Little France, the Western General Hospital at Crewe Road, Edinburgh, and St John's Hospital at Howden, Livingston. St John’s Hospital is a modern teaching hospital, that provides a comprehensive and expanding range of services for the people of Lothian and beyond.
Problem
Hard copy paper questionnaires within the clinics and separately by post were used, following the discharge of in-patients from St John’s Hospital. The response rates were poor as it was noted that of the few questionnaires taken, less than 25% would be returned completed. Also, the manual analysis of the paper-based results proved time consuming, costly and very laborious.
Solution
CRT's ViewPoint Touch Screen, PDA and patient feedback software was utilised in St John’s Hospital and proved to be a much more practical solution, with fantastic additional benefits. It was far less time consuming, and had a much higher response rate, with over 50% more completed surveys than with the previous paper copies. ViewPoint Touch Screen’s simplicity made it easy to use for everyone; whether young or old. CRT’s ViewPoint PDA hand-held devices had a very similar impact, yet had the added benefit of being portable, and were therefore used by those patients who could not easily access ViewPoint Touch Screen or who needed assistance in completing the surveys.
"They’re brilliant! Both ViewPoint Touch Screen and ViewPoint PDA are so useful. It’s amazing how simple life can be made. The devices are simple to use and the added benefit of a web based application means no corrupted databases on your PC. It saves an enormous amount of time…data entry is cut down to almost nothing using ViewPoint…The service we have received from CRT is second to none."
Julie Cassidy, Patient and Public Involvement Worker.
"The accuracy of interpreting information in ViewPoint is just great… reports are visually very good and very uniform… they’re efficient and accurate… we can produce a report very quickly… the devices are extremely user friendly. The ViewPoint system meets our requirement to produce patient focus and public involvement information."
Diane Loughlin, Patient Focus Public Involvement and Health Promotion Lead.
Benefits
ViewPoint Touch Screens
• Response rate increased by over 50%
• No long-winded data entry of paper survey forms
• Fast, effective and automatic patient experience tracking and reporting
• Quicker results analysis
• Accurate statistical facts and comparisons
• Paper free and environmental
ViewPoint PDA
• Versatile; ideal to use for any fieldwork
• Portable; used by immobile and housebound patients
• Can be handed around quickly in conference meetings
• Useful in situations where mains electricity is not readily available or considered unsafe
• Quick and accurate patient experience feedback
• Paper free and environmentally friendly
