South-west regional patient satisfaction survey

A validated patient satisfaction survey for use with sexual health clinic attendees was used in 12 genitourinary (GU) medicine/sexual health clinics throughout the south-west region (UK). The questionnaire covers aspects of pre-appointment, performance of health-care professionals, facilities and privacy, communication with respect, information on leaving and overall experience. Data from the 12 clinics are presented with mean performance scores and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), as well as the experience of implementing the project across a region. There was a high level of satisfaction with overall quality of care: 86-100% rated the quality of care as either excellent or very good. Where clinics have performed below the 95% CI, it provides an opportunity to share good practice from the best performing clinics and to look at one's own processes and discuss as teams whether changes could be made that might improve outcomes. Other clinics might find it useful to use this questionnaire to look at their own performance and compare with these data. As medical re-validation for professional practice approaches, all doctors need to demonstrate that they have participated in collecting quality improvement data and implementing changes to service delivery; these data might provide a starting point.