The Friends & Family Test
The Midlands and East Quality Observatory (MEQO) have been working alongside the Strategic Projects Team to support the NHS Midlands and East Ambition to Create a Patient Revolution.
The Friends and Family Test was devised as the headline metric for the Ambition, as one of the mechanisms for systematically putting patient experience at the top of the region’s nursing and leadership agenda. Data returns for the eighth month, January, have been received from all 46 acute trusts across the Midlands and East. The results are from 29,412 patients within 48 hours of discharge from hospital. The combined net result for the NHS Midlands and East cluster region is 71 up from 52 in April. The net number is formulated when the percentage of detractors is subtracted from the percentage of promoters. Individual trust data will be available from next month.
This initiative provides patients with a new and powerful voice. They have been asked the question, "how likely is it that you would recommend this service to friends and family?" using an "extremely likely" to "not at all likely" scale. The responses will be shared with staff and patients to provide a simple but powerful indicator as to where efforts are having the most impact.
The data dashboard built using Qlikview business intelligence software and MEQO expertise show the headline scores for the Midlands and East cluster region and the response rate for the region. Given that this is the first month of data collection and the inevitable issues this raises for all, we are publishing only headline scores at this stage. We will progressively make greater levels of data available, creating a shared insight from ‘ward to board’. These results can be used to provide each trust with a clear picture of where to prioritise their efforts and direct resources to improve patient experience.
For further information on Friends & Family please visit the NHS Midlands & East Strategic Projects team website.
February 2013 data here
Latest News
The Prime Minister David Cameron explicitly endorsed the test (25/05/2012) and announced the rollout on a national level from April 2013. NHS Midlands and East has been working with the Department of Health, sharing its experience in being at the forefront of the move to a cross cluster ‘real time’ sampling of patient insight.
