The clinical homecare sector has its patients’ wellbeing and safety at the heart of its mission. By supporting those who might not be able to access the support and medication they need from community pharmacies, clinical homecare provides a vital service for many. As it stands, approximately 392,000 people receive clinical homecare in England – and this number is set to increase.
Feedback is key to ensuring these services continue to meet the needs of those who rely on them, as well as supporting clinical homecare providers to work as efficiently as they can. This is where We Love Surveys’ feedback solutions come in, as we can support the companies who are already doing incredible things for their communities. Whether that’s by collecting the data that suggests additional services are required, or simply establishing how patients feel about the service they receive, feedback has the potential to improve all aspects of clinical homecare.
In this article, we will be exploring how effective feedback can enhance the clinical homecare sector and support service users, and how reviewing the data collected can make these services more efficient.
Clinical homecare throughout the pandemic
During the recent pandemic, there was a significant impact on the clinically vulnerable who were required to shield themselves when coronavirus infections were at their peak. The essential services offered by clinical homecare were vital for these patients. While these services have been a lifeline to many, feedback can provide the data needed to tailor services to the patient’s needs, ensuring continuous improvement.
The NCHA defines clinical homecare as “the services that often revolve around the provision of specialist medicines which patients administer themselves at home with appropriate support and training. Some clinical homecare services also include healthcare professionals visiting patients at home to provide support and training or regular home visits to administer medications.” This form of healthcare supports service users and patients with additional needs or specialist medication requirements that they might find difficult to access in community pharmacies.
Companies such as Alcura and Lloyds Pharmacy are excellent examples of companies that offer clinical homecare. It’s important to note the potential that bespoke feedback solutions have in not only collecting the data that will allow clinical homecare services to be analysed, but also to drive actionable change based on the results.
The importance of collecting feedback in clinical homecare settings
Collecting feedback from patients within their homes needs to be carefully considered, and implemented differently compared to patients who can offer feedback after their in-person visit to a community pharmacy. We understand that collecting feedback directly after an experience, as opposed to a few days after, is the key to accuracy and good response rates, and this is no different when the patient is visited at home.
We have found that several of our specialist feedback solutions work well for collecting feedback in a clinical homecare setting, for example, by sending text messages with a link to a web survey where feedback can be provided or giving patients business cards with a QR code or link to leave their feedback. We work closely with all our clients to ensure that every survey is tailored to their exact requirements, understanding how to get the best from the questions asked and designing their survey in line with their brand guidelines for a seamless user experience.
Our experience of working with clinical homecare providers
We recently teamed up with Alcura, who work with healthcare companies, professionals and organisations, to provide innovative personalised solutions that improve patient care and treatment experience. Alcura approached us in 2020, and initial discussions allowed us to understand that the NCHA survey is mandatory and should be made available to all patients, once per year.
In the past, the process of collecting patient satisfaction feedback was carried out manually by the internal operational team using a variety of methodology, but predominantly paper surveys. The manual process was time-consuming and inefficient. The Alcura team understood they needed to embrace digital technology to enable them to make the survey accessible for all patients and to improve on the previous return rates of 400 per year, but they also appreciated that self-management of a survey to more than 30,000 patients would take huge resource and admin time that simply was not viable; the prospect felt overwhelming.
Through our work together, we handled the process of sending SMS to around 30,000 patients with a link to the web survey included. Each patient was then able to simply click on the link and give their feedback. With this method, we could send the initial SMS and track activity.
SMS reminders were also sent two weeks post-launch to those who had not clicked on the original weblink. Using this method, we could accurately review participation throughout the survey time. Alcura were thrilled with the 12% response rate, 2% over target, meaning an additional 500 patients’ feedback was included in the overall results.
“The Alcura team are fully committed to the compassionate care of patients and strive to offer a gold standard of service,” said Stephanie Westwood, Head of NHS Services. “The Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire is critical to understand the needs of our patient cohort but to also listen to the viewpoints of areas of improvement to the service we offer. We Love Surveys and their account managers, Anna and Helen, have been a pivotal part of the success, understanding our needs and end goal, to guide and partner us on our digital journey.”
If you’re interested in learning more about the work we did with Alcura, you can read our case study here.
“Improving patient experience is something the We Love Surveys team are passionate about,” said Helen Dargie, We Love Surveys’ Medication Audits Process Improvement Specialist. “With clinical homecare teams providing such personalised care, listening to and acting upon the views of patients and their families should always be at the heart of this. Helping clients to collect feedback in a way that is right for them, and their patients is what we do best, to enable changes to the service and celebrate success. We’re proud to be working with companies like Alcura on this journey.”
Whether you would like support with your annual survey, or perhaps are interested in collecting data from service users and teams on a more regular basis, we can help to gauge the service you are providing and which feedback solution would meet your needs.
Final thoughts
Clinical homecare is an essential service for those who may not be able to access community pharmacies. The feedback collected surrounding the topic of clinical homecare not only plays a vital role in the improvement of pharmacy care, but also ensures that service users feel their thoughts and opinions are taken seriously, and that their feedback is acted upon.
Our team at We Love Surveys is here to support our clients in the pharmacy industry and clinical homecare sector to ensure surveys collect the data that is needed to make actionable changes.
Our team can work with you to find the right feedback solution for your pharmacy business and start your journey to better, informed decision making, with your patients and customers at the heart of what you do. To learn more about us and how we can support your business, get in touch today.