The power of stories: driving healthcare improvement through patient stories

Dr Alistair Brandon – Jones

•Reader in Operations and Supply Management, Manchester Business School •Visiting Senior Research Fellow, University of Bath•Visiting Lecturer, Warwick Medical School

Understanding what leads to patient

aggression

• Over 55,000 physical assaults against NHS staff annually Over 13,000 in acute trusts (inc A&E) where this research tool place

• £69m cost to NHS of workplace related violence annually

Patient stories

Ideal patient experiences

1. Information and education (reassurance, achievement, purpose, feedback, questions answered, way-finding)

2. Maintenance and quality (clean, well maintained, considerate, good morale)

3. Comfort and convenience (layout, privacy, atmosphere)

4. Liberty and empowerment (occupation, freedom, transparency)

5. Security and safety (surveillance, separation, prevention, mitigation and responce to incidents

Solution objectives

The solution

Reflections

• Patient stories are sometimes used, but often for major incident enquiries rather than for on-going improvement

• Patient stories can give a ‘richer’ sense of the patient journey (a process perspective)

• Patient stories appear hugely valuable in driving operational improvement

• http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/AEtoolkit/

• http://idsa.org/idea-2013-social-impact-design

Dr Alistair Brandon – JonesReader in Operations and Supply

Management Manchester Business School alistair.brandon-jones@mbs.ac.uk