Case Summary

A small pilot program looking to improve the quality of service and care between health service providers and citizens through enhanced communication ends up expanding to encompass all of England. Patient Opinion helps bridge the gap between patients and their health service providers by connecting them together in a blog that allows for citizens to rate or write about their health care experiences and for health service providers to respond, listen and learn.

Business Challenge

Paul Hodgkin, a Sheffield General Practitioner and former worker for the Department of Health, created Patient Opinion in order to harness opinions and information held by patients to improve the NHS (National Health Service). The traditional ways of gathering this type of information (surveying and panel discussions) never proved to be beneficial. The internet (through Patient Opinion) allowed the unique exchange of information and collaboration between patients and NHS to take place.

Patient Opinion originally started in 2005 as a pilot funded by the Department of Health and the South Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority specifically for the area of South Yorkshire but it soon grew to encompass all of England by 2006.

Approach Taken

Patient Opinion is a non-profit, independent (not part of NHS or the British government) organization whose goal is to improve the quality and service of care provided by the NHS to British citizens through greater communication. The organization is run by a small staff of workers, most of whom have a background in healthcare. It's supported by shareholders whose job is to make sure that Patient Opinion stays true to its goal and mission of helping the NHS to improve the quality of service and care throughout England. The organization is funded through subscriptions from hospitals and primary care trusts who in return receive data reports concerning patients' opinions of them.

Patient Opinion allows users to post a story, thank you, review, suggestion or concern on the website concerning the treatment received at a hospital or primary care trust in England. However, people can also use the site to research about health care services provided from specific locations. Users are able to enter their postcode which will then bring up health service providers from around your area and provide you with how individuals rated them (out of 5 stars) in the categories of:

-Standard of medical care
-Standard of nursing care
-Cleanliness
-Parking
-Treated with respect and dignity
-Information and decision making shared appropriately
-Service punctuality/timeliness

The total number of people who voted will also be displayed. Accessing individual postings about the health provider that's rated is also possible. Searching just for opinions and not ratings is made easy by a search bar that allows users to search all postings based on the information you enter.

After postings have been verified and edited if needed to be, they will be sent by the Patient Opinion staff to the appropriate hospital manager or staff. They claim that hospitals do read the postings sent to them and access the site because they have responded to numerous postings made. The exact ratio of postings responded to is not known.

The website also contains a blog filled with their "best" postings and information detailing what's happening on NHS's frontlines and anything new going on at Patient Opinion.

Results Achieved

More than 7000 people have posted a comment or ranked a service

Over 500,000 pages are being viewed per month

Certain hospitals have used the site and it's postings to improve their service and/or quality of care.

Lessons Learned

The lesson learned is that greater accessibility and increased communication can make a difference in the realm of health services. By people posting comments it shows that they genuinely want to share their experiences at hospitals and hope that they will in some way improve the NHS.

Patient Opinion is also looking to expand their website to include general practices that might even include dentists or pharmacists, although this risks losing the Patient Opinion anonymity.