At St Joseph’s Hospital, we are proud of our healthcare achievements and the high standards of our care, and we, therefore, share with our patients the measurements by which we judge ourselves and the results of those measurements.
We are regulated by the Healthcare Inspectorate of Wales who carry out regular inspections and audits of the hospital and its services. The most recent inspection report can be viewed at www.hiw.org.uk
We measure the quality and effectiveness of our work in many different ways including health improvement, patient satisfaction, infections, and re-admissions or return to theatres.
Patient satisfaction – we care about your experience at St Joseph’s
We are committed to providing the highest levels of quality care to all of our patients. In order to achieve this goal, we believe that it is critical to receive feedback from all of our patients. It helps us praise those involved with patient care as well as improve services and facilities if required to meet our patients’ expectations.
In-patients are asked to complete a Patient Feedback Form on their discharge from hospital. We also encourage and value feedback from day patients and visitors.
We measure and track our performance across a number of key areas.
Healthcare standards
At St Joseph’s Hospital, we work tirelessly to ensure our standards in clinical quality and safety are of the highest calibre. We monitor a range of performance measures including:
- MRSA - a type of bacteria that is resistant to some antibiotics. A healthy person can carry MRSA on their skin and it does not harm them. However, if MRSA enters the bloodstream of a vulnerable person, recovering from surgery or after an illness, it can cause infection. MRSA can be treated with a range of different antibiotics in line with national policies. Prior to undergoing any surgical intervention patients must return a negative MRSA swab result.
- C-Difficile infections - Clostridium Difficile is a type of bacteria that can cause severe and frequent diarrhoea, abdominal pain and fever.
- Surgical site infection - all surgery carries the risk of infection in the wound created by the operation and this is known as Surgical Site Infection (SSI). Infection can be treated with dressings and/or antibiotics.
- Return to theatre - is when a patient has surgery and needs to return to theatre for an unplanned procedure during the same stay in hospital. Whilst there may be occasions when this is necessary we strive to continually improve our practice to ensure that returns to theatre are rare.
- Unplanned readmissions - occasionally patients need to return to hospital for additional treatment. An unplanned re-admission is counted when a patient is re-admitted to the hospital within 31 days of being discharged. Re-admission is sometimes unavoidable, however, our careful discharge planning, coupled with the excellent health information and patient support service we provide, helps to minimise its likelihood.
Thrombosis UK
We would recommend that you download the Thrombosis UK Patient Resources app on your mobile phone and/or tablet before coming into hospital.
This useful app shares key information about clots, including reducing risk of Deep Vien Thrombosis (DVT), signs and symptoms to look out for, diagnosis and UK approved treatments and therapies. If you are recovering from a recent blood clot, the app also shares information about recovery, including pain and breathlessness, managing anxiety and worry, regaining wellbeing, fitness and returning to everyday activities.
All information is medically approved and has been developed in collaboration with the charity, Thrombosis UK, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, patients, lay supporters and healthcare providers.
Click here https://thrombosisuk.org/vte-apps.php to download the app and find out more.