Two out of three NEDs clueless, report shows.
Dial-a-death-rate pollsters Dr Foster and pals, the ‘UK’s market-leading provider of information, analysis and targeted communications to health and social care organisations’ has published its 2010 Intelligent Board report.
‘The Intelligent Board 2010: Patient Experience’ challenges NHS boards and NEDs to ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ over patient experience.
The report found that only one in three non-executive directors feel ‘very well informed’ or ‘well informed’ about patient experience at their trust. Over half of all NEDs surveyed admitted spending less than 10% of their time considering patient experience.
The report offers clueless NEDs Dr Foster’s innovative thought leadership programme to help them escape from the dark corridors of patient experience ignorance to the sunny uplands of positive action and delivered change:
“our thought leadership programme seeks to share new thinking, provoke debate and stimulate action in transforming data into knowledge and knowledge into positive action. Our aim is that the thought leadership work we support should be as practical as it is interesting, founded both on insight into the operational realities of policy challenges and on expertise in using information to deliver change.”
Later sections of the report set about detailing the steps NHS boards need to take to embark on this eye-opening journey. Board members are advised to:
“• get insights from the sharp end [ouch!]
• listen to real patients [beats fake ones any day]
• overcome siloed thinking [siloed? sounds like grain-storming…]”
Boards can then progress to Deep Analysis 2 (not forgetting to ‘triangulate’ clinical data with ‘experience’ data along the way) and make key recommendations and actions:
“• rapid-action team tasked with improving joint working and communications between doctors and nurses. Impact report due by December.
• non-executives are invited to conduct ward walkrounds – guidance and briefing to be given in advance.
• additional analysis is under way on whether poor patient feedback is affecting patient flows.”
Dr No kids you not. These extracts are, with very minor readability/context changes, direct cut and pastes from the report. Intelligent Board? More like thick plank…