Clinical quality indicators

Overall patient satisfaction

About 12% of all patients choose to complete this. The questionnaires are independently collected and findings reviewed. We use a 5 point rating scale for responses to the questions and the top two answers are used to measure overall patient satisfaction.

Confidence and trust in our doctors and nurses

The bond between professional and patient is special. All patients receiving treatment in our hospitals are invited to complete a questionnaire about the quality of the hospital services and care provided by professionals. About 12% of all patients choose to complete this. These are independently collected and inspected. We use a 5 point rating scale and the top two answers are used to measure satisfaction with our clinical teams.

Recommendations to friends and family

Nuffield Health was started, as a charity, by commitment from local communities. We still feel that it’s important that our customers feel confident about recommending our services to friends and family, to build on our community roots. All patients receiving treatment in our hospitals are invited to complete a questionnaire about the quality of the hospital services and care provided - this includes a question about whether they would recommend us to friends and family.

The questionnaires are independently collected and findings reviewed. We use a 5 point rating scale and the top two answers are used to measure satisfaction with our local services.

Concerns and complaints

We always investigate and respond to every concern and formal complaint that is raised with us by our customers. We have in place an open complaints process that includes an external adjudication process. We always look for the lesson behind any concern to enable us to continuously improve our services. We aim to be opening honest and transparent in our responses to complaints.

Cleanliness and comfort

One of the current greatest concerns for everybody who works in a hospital is cleanliness. It is so important that we make cleanliness and Infection Prevention a key responsibility for our Matrons and Head of Clinical Services. We internally inspect all our facilities for standards of cleanliness and we also we judge our performance on the response of our customers.

All patients receiving treatment in our hospitals are invited to complete a questionnaire about the quality of the hospital services and care provided. About 12% of all patients choose to complete this. The questionnaires are independently collected and findings reviewed. We use a 5 point rating scale for responses to the questions and the top two answers are used to measure overall satisfaction with the cleanliness and comfort of the hospital facilities.

Hand hygiene

Infection prevention is very important to everyone. We have an Infection Prevention and Control Policy in place in all of our hospitals, using best practice from all over the world. There is no key magic ingredient to prevent infection, so we have staff specifically trained in infection prevention and control working in every hospital. The Infection Prevention staff carry out inspections and regularly check that other staff are carrying out procedures correctly. This includes hand washing procedures. The score for the indicator is their verdict for observation of hand washing technique in compliance with Best Practice.

Infection rates - MRSA

Many people will have heard or read about super bugs that cause infection in hospitals, most are normally harmless but we know that these super bugs can cause serious harm after operations. One of these super bugs is known as MRSA. We have a strict Infection Prevention and Control Policy in place in all our hospitals. Prevention is always better than a cure so we have a strict policy in place about assessing patients for risk of infection before surgery. This assessment may include screening and treatment of infection before admission to hospital. We measure and publish our extremely low infection rates, so you can judge our success in prevention of infection for yourself.

The score we have applied to MRSA – blood infections is consistent with how other independent hospitals and NHS Trusts across the UK are mandated to report on MRSA.

This is measured by dividing the number of cases of confirmed MRSA – blood infections by the total number of days that all patients have been in hospital.

Infection rates - Clostridia difficile (Bowel bacteria)

Many people will have heard or read about super bugs that cause infection in hospitals, most are normally harmless but we know that these super bugs can cause serious harm in vulnerable group of people. One of these super bugs is known as Clostridia difficile or commonly called c.diff. 

We have a strict Infection Prevention and Control Policy in place in all our hospitals. Prevention is always better than a cure so we have a policy about assessing patients for risk of infection before surgery. This assessment may include screening and treatment of infection before admission to hospital. We measure and publish our extremely low infection rates, so you can judge our success in prevention of infection for yourself. The score we have applied to Clostridia difficile infection is consistent with how other independent hospitals and NHS Trusts are mandated to measure and report. It is measured by dividing the number of cases of Clostridia difficile by the total number of days that all patients have been in hospital.

Surgical site infection

Infection prevention is very important to everyone. We have an Infection Prevention and Control Policy in place in all of our hospitals, using best practice from all over the world. There is no key magic ingredient to prevent infection, so we have staff specifically trained in infection prevention in every hospital. The Infection Prevention staff carry out inspections and regularly check that other staff are carrying out procedures correctly.

We perform over 8,000 hip and knee replacement operations a year.

We measure our infection rate (which is extremely low) and we publish our infection rate so you can judge our success for yourself.

The score we have applied to infection rates is consistent with how other independent hospitals are mandated to measure and report. They are measured by dividing the number of cases of infection by the number of a) total hip replacements and b) total knee replacements – carried out within Nuffield Health hospitals.

Blood clots

Blood clots in the lung (pulmonary embolism) and in the legs (deep vein thrombosis) are not common, but they can occur after operations or lying in bed for many reasons; some people are more at risk than others. We carefully risk assess everyone coming in to our hospital as part of our pre-admission procedures and follow national best practice prevention guidelines to try and prevent blood clots from happening. We record every incident of Deep Vein Thrombosis and Pulmonary embolism and publish our rate so you can judge our success in prevention for yourself.

The score we have applied is measured by recording all confirmed cases of DVT & PE – prior to the patients discharge from hospital.