Healthcare communication initiative – customer care toolkit launch

An award-winning initiative to help hospitals capture improvement ideas from staff and patients has been introduced by healthcare specialist, Echelon Ltd.

‘One Thousand Ideas’ is a three-month long programme enabling patients, users and staff to identify up to 1,000 practical opportunities for improved service delivery.

The initiative, which can be tailored to specific Trust needs, includes an implementation toolkit for use in all staff/PPI situations including expert patient groups and Foundation Trust member groups.

The creative kit offers ways of generating and capturing ideas from patients and staff; visual methods to communicate Trust service principles and employee commitments; means of capturing and communicating outputs and outcomes along with training tools needed to sustain a service improvement culture.

Materials available for ready customisation include:
• Service aims and employee commitments aligned to current NHS imperatives
• ‘Tablemats’ for collecting ideas in focus groups
• Posters
• Checklists promoting ideal customer care behaviour
• Advice on collecting, disseminating and managing ideas
• Challenge cards to use in communication meetings and training.

Expected outcomes from implementing One Thousand Ideas include improved results on national patient and staff feedback surveys; focused engagement of patients/users in contributing to service improvements; staff involvement (and training) for identifying improvements to patient and colleague care.

The programme has been rolled out in an acute Foundation Trust and a London teaching hospital.

Chelsea & Westminster NHS Trust won the 2005 Health Service Journal Communication Award for evidenced service improvements resulting from this latest initiative from London-based Echelon, a specialist in advising healthcare providers on improving board effectiveness and service delivery.

Further information from Jenny Hill at Echelon Learning Ltd on 020 8568 1500; email jenny@echelonL.com

Ends

Released January 2006 on behalf of Echelon Publishing by BLP&PR
Media contact: Peter Muir Tel + 44 (0)1296 715228
Email: echelon@pmpr.co.uk
Sales contact: David Hill Tel + 44 (0)20 8568 1500
Email: david@echelonl.com

About Echelon Learning
Echelon Learning is a consultancy-led publishing house that integrates electronically-delivered knowledge and learning into the development of management skills and business performance. Echelon Consulting spearheads the company’s service with the development of new content in meeting clients’ requirements. This is usually derived from analysing employee knowledge and learning needs captured during client learning programmes.

Where appropriate, Echelon Publishing then offers this new content to a wider audience by publishing the material in generic format. This is made available in the form of easy to use ‘learning nuggets’ and is complimented with business development information licensed exclusively from one of the market’s best-known providers, Bloomsbury.

Echelon e-Learning provides the electronic systems which enable content to be published, distributed and usage tracked, and offers work-based solutions to a global audience. Now Echelon’s blended learning based on a bespoke site populated with material selected to support specific courses, builds knowledge prior to the event and refreshes application when back at the desk.