Patient satisfaction initiative at PECs gets ‘thumbs up’

In line with the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC)’s mission of providing patient-centred care, HMC’s Paediatric Emergency Centres (PECs) have been tracking patient satisfaction under the “Thumbs-up Initiative” launched in 2013.
The main PEC, located in the Al Sadd area, serves as a hub for other PECs across Qatar, delivering a full range of diagnostic and therapeutic services to HMC’s youngest patients under 14 years.
Under the initiative, families or guardians of patients are asked to rate the performance of the nursing staff who attend to them.
They are provided with a slip showing faces with thumbs-up, thumbs-down, smiley and angry expressions and are asked to check the box that best describes their level of satisfaction.
Since the launch of the initiative in 2013, the thumbs-up has been the preferred choice of the majority of patients, indicating that the families of the centre’s young patients are satisfied with the level of care they have received.
The initiative was introduced by the PEC administration, led by HMC Paediatric Emergency director Dr Khalid al-Ansari, to identify any concerns that patients might have regarding the care that they are receiving.
“With the global changes in healthcare delivery, numerous improvements have taken place in the PECs, especially in our pursuit to become patient-centred care facilities,” Dr al-Ansari said. “I am proud of our team who are working on this initiative and helping to ensure our nursing staff continues to offer the highest quality and most compassionate care to each and every one of our patients.”
“The initiative seeks to promote more individualised and personalised care at the PECs by asking a patient’s family or guardian to rate the performance of the nursing staff assigned to their child,” project lead and director of nursing at Al Sadd PEC, Gloria Arrojo Lariego, explained. “By doing this, we were able to find out more how our nurses are interacting with patients.”
She said that nurses who receive the highest number of thumbs up are recognised at the end of each month.
The nurses are also celebrated and awarded certificates during staff recognition events.
According to Lariego, the other main objectives of the “Thumbs-up Initiative” include identifying customer areas of need, their expectations of clinical staff, and areas of dissatisfaction.