Results just published by the NHS Information Centre show that the majority of Care UK treatment centres have scored ‘excellent’ in all categories when assessed by the annual Patient Environment Action Teams.
This annual assessment focuses on the environment in which care is provided and the quality of non-clinical services such as food, privacy and dignity in hospitals with more than ten beds.
The surveys are carried out by a core team involving housekeeping, building management and clinical employees but the real value of the assessment is provided by the patient representatives who lead the team in truly understanding the patients’ perception of the care environment. The findings are independently validated by external assessors; usually from an NHS background. The results are determined on a 5-point scale of excellent, good, acceptable, poor and unacceptable.
The assessment results help hospitals to highlight areas for improvement, give positive feedback to hospital employees achieving great results and help to share best practice across healthcare organisations in England.
Care UK’s director of clinical governance Susan Marshall said: “We’re particularly proud of the fact that all six Care UK treatment centres achieved an environmental cleanliness score of ‘excellent’. That result is a tribute to the way that every single member of the treatment centre teams understands the importance of cleanliness in preventing infections and reassuring patients.”
Overall results showed that there had been a significant increase across all independent hospitals in achieving a rating of ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ compared with the figures for the previous year. Care UK was shown as one of the top providers in this field.
