St Annes Dental Clinic
NHS Patient Satisfaction Audit
Audit start date: 07/06/2024
Completion date: 13/06/24
Author: Lucy Croft
Background of this audit
I will be conducting a patient survey for our NHS patients at the practice. It will include a series of questions to gain feedback from our NHS patients. I will be conducting a questionnaire that includes 7 questions based on the service that we provide at the practice. The topic of questions will vary to provide a wide range of data, it will provide feedback for all areas such as reception, dental surgeries and the practice.
From the data we will then review this and total up what patients are most happy about within our practice and what they are least happy about. This will allow us to make changes where possible.
Aim Summary
- Identify areas within the practice that need improvement.
- Identify areas that patients are satisfied with.
- Provide feedback to the dental team from our patients
- Make improvements and reassess in 12 months.
Questionnaire Audience
The questionnaire will be given to registered NHS patients at the practice, it will be carried out over 5 days to provide a variety of data from all NHS patients. The patients who will fill in information will be within the age range of 21+, male and females and all NHS patients (including exempt patients) to provide a wide range of feedback. The questionnaires will be handed out on paper to patients to fill out after their appointment due to the nature of some of the questions.
Patients will remain anonymous, they will only be asked to provide dentist name to allow us to allocate feedback accordingly, their age group and gender. The patient will be able to provide comments if necessary to expand on the reasoning.
Satisfaction Questionnaire Results
Question 1 related to satisfaction with booking the appointment. Of the 30 people asked 23 patients indicated a satisfaction of 9/10, 1 patient scored 8/10, 3 patients scored 7/10, 2 patients scored 6/10 and 1 patient scored 5/10. A mean average score for this question was 8.4.
Question 2 related to the communication with the reception team. Of the 30 people asked 29 patients indicated a satisfaction of 9/10, 1 patient scored 8/10. A mean average score for this question was 8.9.
Question 3 related to the wait time for the appointment, this meant the time from booking the appointment to being seen (length of wait). Of the 30 peoples asked 18 patients indicated a satisfaction of 9/10, 1 patient scored 8/10, 8 patients scored 7/10, 1 patient scored 6/10, 1 patient scored 5/10 and 1 patient scored 3/10. A mean average score for this question was 8.
Question 4 related to time to discuss needs with dentist. Of the 30 people asked 27 patients indicated a satisfaction of 9/10, 1 patient scored 8/10 and 2 patients scored 7/10. A mean average score for this question was 8.8.
Question 5 related to satisfaction with communication with their dentist. Of the 30 people asked 28 patients indicated a satisfaction score of 9/10 and 2 patients indicated a score of 8/10. A mean average score of this question was 8.9.
Question 6 related to overall satisfaction with treatment provided by their dentist. Of the 30 people asked 29 patients indicated a satisfaction score of 9/10 and 1 patient indicated a score of 8/10. A mean average score for this question was 8.9.
Question 7 related to overall satisfaction with the service provided by the whole dental team, including nurses and receptionists. Of the 30 people asked 29 patients indicated a score of 9/10 and 1 patient indicated a score of 8/10. A mean average score for this question was 8.9.
Graph – overall bar chart of each question and its average score. See appendix 1
Satisfaction Questionnaire Discussion
The results indicated patients were most satisfied with communication at the practice with average overall scores of 8.9. This included questions surrounding communication with dentists and reception team. The results also indicated patients were most satisfied with treatment carried out by their dentist with average overall score of 8.9.
The results indicated patients were least satisfied with wait time for appointments, with average overall score of 8. Patients were asked to provide feedback surrounding the topic of wait times from booking appointment to being seen by their dentist. Many patients have provided feedback of wait times for appointments being too long, our average wait time for scheduled appointment is over 2 months. Patients also indicated they were least satisfied with booking appointments, the average score for this topic was 8.4. Patients provided feedback within the questionnaire regarding phone lines being very busy and struggling to get through to the reception team.
Suggested future improvements
We will review this audit every 12 months. This will see if our implemented improvements have made a difference. It will help gather more data from various other selected patients to review the practice satisfaction.
We have reviewed what patients found to be least satisfied with and we are working towards reducing appointment wait times and improving our phone line system to ensure patients are able to get through our phones and we can provide them with the care needed. We are providing our email to allow patients to book appointments through our email rather than waiting in a queue. We are looking into other methods to try reducing patient wait times on our phone lines by suggesting times for patients to call the practice regarding their reason. For example, requesting patients to call after 2pm to book routine appointments to ensure patients who require emergency appointments are able to make an appointment on the morning of.
We are also trying to improve our online booking system to allow patients to book through our website their appointments to reduce phone calls made to the practice.
Appendix
