WebsiteWatch: Improving healthcare through patients' eyes

Australian Resource Centre for Healthcare Innovation

The Australian Resource Centre for Healthcare Innovation (ARCHI) is one of many websites providing an information gateway for Australian health professionals and the health service managers to deliver better patient journeys. Their website acts as a hub to collect and collate information on quality innovations in acute care and other related settings and disseminate information and resources on quality innovations which are accessible, acceptable and comprehensible for clinicians. Services provided include newsletters, discussion forums, enquiry services and innovator showcases. They welcome any submission of programs or projects that have improved healthcare delivery.

This website also contains a digital library that holds valuable reports related to Australian healthcare. For instance, a report by the title Fast Track – A Plan to Reduce Waiting Times in an Emergency Department is a valuable resource in addressing the patient's healthcare accessibility. According to the report, the Fast Track system allows lower complexity patients in the Emergency Department (ED) at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital to be progressed through their ED visit in a more timely fashion, which significantly improved the waiting times for Australian Triage Scale categories 3, 4 and 5. The percentage of patients that did not wait for treatment reduced together with the levels of aggression in the waiting room.  Patient and staff satisfaction increased. For more information on this report and many others, please visit this website and search the digital library for relevant topic.

Web: www.archi.net.au/home

Picker Institute

As referred to by the ‘Picker Institute' on their website, “for a quality improvement program to meet its goals and objectives, one has to look through the patients' eyes”. By focusing on the principle of patient-centred care, the ‘Picker Survey' has distinguished eight dimensions for measuring patients experiences.

They are:

• Access to health care including waiting time and bed allocation in a ward
• Respects for patient's values, preferences, and expressed needs
• Coordination and integration of care
• Information, communication and education of health care
• Physical comfort
• Emotional support and alleviation of fear and anxiety
• Involvement of family and friends
• Transition and continuity support during post hospitalisation.

The Picker website offers fact sheets, publications and educational products to assist in improving healthcare practices and systems.

Web: www.pickerinstitute.org