Patients happy with care in Tauranga Hospital

Tauranga Hospital

Tauranga Hospital has been given the tick of approval in a national survey of patients' experiences.

The Health Quality and Safety Commission asked Tauranga and Whakatane hospitals' inpatients between November 3 and 16 last year to rate the communication, partnership and co-ordination of care out of 10.

The hospitals were rated between 8.2 and 8.7 in each of the areas. Nationally, the average rating was 8 or higher.

Patients were also asked 20 detailed questions with the possible answers: "Yes, definitely," "yes, to some extent" or "no".

Tauranga and Whakatane scored highest rates of "yes, definitely" responses with questions about confidence and trust in the staff (86 per cent) and whether staff explained the risks and benefits before an operation in a way it could be understood (85 per cent).

The hospitals' lowest "yes, definitely" answers were to the questions: "Did a member of staff tell you about medication side effects to watch for when you went home?" (43 per cent) and "Did the hospital staff include your family, whanau or someone close to you in discussions about your care?" (46 per cent).

Gail Bingham, Bay of Plenty District Health Board general manager of governance and quality, said staff were "very pleased" with the survey results.

"There were 20 questions across four category areas. The DHB scored high average marks in all four areas," she said.

"Along with this and the results we get from our fortnightly survey, we are getting a real feel for our patients' experience and this helps us prioritise on-going quality improvement initiatives," she said.

The questions with lower results were also identified nationally as needing concentrated efforts to improve. "We will analyse [the areas with low ratings] to see if there are any themes and we will look at initiatives which can be implemented."

The DHB already had initiatives such as open visiting arrangements for family and friends, as well as allowing patients to nominate a lead support person to stay overnight if required, she said. Nationally, the survey found the more than 6000 respondents were satisfied with their experiences - but improvements could be made. NZME.