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Suggestions for improvement

Posted By Denmark Patient

"Suggestions for improvement"

About: Albany Health Campus / Surgical Ward

(as a service user),

I had TURBT surgery recently for bladder cancer and was kept in overnight in the surgical ward. My treatment at AHC was generally excellent and I'm very appreciative of this and the efforts of the hospital and staff but I have the following suggestions for improvement:

1) My wait in the waiting room prior to being readied for surgery was in excess of two hours and while I understand how busy it was on the day I believe better planning in this area would help reduce patient anxiety that such long waits cause. In my opinion, if the arrival times could be staggered so that patients arrive closer to their anticipated surgery time (say wait no longer than an hour), this would alleviate considerable patient anxiety that is probably not ideal for obtaining best health outcomes.

2) I was kept in overnight in the Surgical Ward in a room that is very close to a card key operated security door that is self-closing and is opened and closed continually, resulting in a beep when the card-key is used, a clack when the door is opened and a considerable bang when the door latches closed. Also the room's door was generally kept open by staff and was only pulled to when I requested it closed. With the security door operation, the corridor noise, the nearby nurses station, I believe it was near impossible for patients in my room to sleep and I'm generally not a light sleeper. Possibly some sound deadening of the security door and keeping the room door closed would greatly improve patient rest in this room.

Thank you again for my care.

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Responses

Response from Juan Clark, Operations Manager, Operations, Albany Health Campus, WACHS Great Southern 3 years ago
We have made a change
Juan Clark
Operations Manager, Operations,
Albany Health Campus, WACHS Great Southern

Submitted on 10/02/2021 at 2:47 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 3:19 PM

Dear Denmark Patient,

Thank you for sharing your feedback about Albany Health Campus. I am so glad to know that you received excellent treatment and I will share this great feedback with everyone that would have been involved in your care.

Your suggestion to stagger patient arrival times is indeed a good one, and one we implemented some time ago with positive effect. Admission times are based on a patient’s age, medical history, bed availability, what procedure they are having done and the estimated duration of the procedure. Some procedures take only ten minutes whilst more complex procedures can take several hours to perform. Of course, every person is different, so estimated procedural times can sometimes take more or less time than anticipated. Occasionally, waiting times can be affected by the need to accommodate emergency procedures coming from the hospital Emergency Department. Our staff make every effort to keep the process flowing with as minimal a wait time as possible, however we encourage patients to bring a book or an activity they can do to help pass the time.

We are always looking for ways to improve our service and most recently changed our fasting policy, following an audit on fasting times. This now allows our patients to continue to drink fluids right up until they present to hospital for their procedure, making for a much more comfortable start to their day. Also, we are currently in the process of redesigning our surgical services waiting area. I would welcome any suggestions you might like to offer on how we might make this a comfortable space for our waiting patients. If this is something you would like to become involved in I would be pleased to hear from you. I would also value the opportunity of learning more about your overnight stay on Surgical Ward. This may help us identify which room and door you are referring to, and what we may be able to do to improve the situation. Please feel free to contact me on 9892 2647 about this or any other matter.

Kind regards

Juan Clark

Operations Manager, Albany Health Campus

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Response from Juan Clark, Operations Manager, Operations, Albany Health Campus, WACHS Great Southern 3 years ago
Juan Clark
Operations Manager, Operations,
Albany Health Campus, WACHS Great Southern

Submitted on 15/04/2021 at 12:53 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 1:04 PM

Dear Denmark Patient,

Thank you again for sharing your experience on Care Opinion and for contacting me in response. It was a pleasure speaking with you about your experience and letting you know more about the changes we have made to our service. Thank you also for providing me with more information about your overnight stay on the Surgical Ward. We were able to identify the offending door and our Clinical Nurse Manager and Manager of Infrastructure and Support Services are working together to lessen the disturbance to patients when staff are using this door.

Yours sincerely,

Juan Clark

Operations Manager, Albany Health Campus

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