An independent patient survey directed by nurses was found to measurably increase patient satisfaction, according to an oral presentation given by Amber Williams, RN, of the Ohio State University James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, at the Oncology Nursing Society 41st Annual Congress in San Antonio, according to Oncology Nurse Advisor.
The program started after the nurses received patient satisfaction scores lower than the national average when it came to home care instructions for post-chemotherapy patients. After receiving that feedback from Press Ganey in January 2015, nurses at the center developed a survey to assess patient's perception of the instructions they receive regarding home care and side effect management.
Surveys were distributed in February 2015 and 126 were returned. Of those, 23 contained suggestions on how to improve educational materials provided to patients. Patients indicated they wanted clearer information regarding a litany of chemotherapy side effects.
The nurses took the notes given by their patients and improved the educational materials distributed to them. The Press Ganey scores subsequently increased from 90.9 to 93.8 for quality of instructions and from 85 to 96 for information on side effects.
The increases suggest that patient feedback can be an asset for improving the quality of care for oncology patients.
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