The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement has launched a new toolkit to help hospitals look at the quality of care they provide through the eyes of patients and relatives, helping them to hear and see what good looks like. The 15 Steps Challenge helps hospitals to gain an understanding of how patients feel about the care provided and how high levels of confidence can be built for staff. It helps Trusts to understand and identify the key components of high quality care that are important to patients and carers from their first contact with a hospital ward.
Co-produced with patients, relatives, volunteers, staff, governors and senior leaders, the 15 Steps Challenge was created from feedback received from a mum who talked about her daughter, whose condition needed frequent inpatient stays. She commented that she could tell what kind of care her daughter was going to get “within 15 steps of walking on to a ward.”
The Challenge has been developed by working with staff and patients linked to ‘The Productive Ward’ programme, but can be a useful tool even if Trusts are not currently implementing this initiative. The 15 Steps Challenge provides a series of questions and prompts to guide patients, carers and NHS staff through their first impressions of a ward. It is quick and simple to use and can work alongside PEAT inspections.
“The purpose of the 15 Steps Challenge is to help patients and staff to work together to identify improvements that can enhance the patient experience,” said Alice Williams, associate for the Productive Care work stream. “It helps Trusts continue along their improvement journey by enabling the patient’s voice to be heard clearly, and highlight what is working well and what might be done to increase patient confidence.”
The toolkit is available at: www.institute.nhs.uk/productives/15StepsChallenge
