Patient Experience

Patient experience is a broad term that can mean different things to different people and organisations. However, what is clear is that the experience of care and services that patients have is becoming increasingly important, and using those experiences can be a powerful tool for change.

Understanding and improving how patients experience their care is a key component to successfully delivering high-quality services that are based on their needs. The quality of patient experience is increasingly recognised as a key element of the overall quality of healthcare across the UK. For example, the Long Term Conditions QIPP work stream in England seeks to improve clinical outcomes by focusing on shared decision making, which improves the experience for patients, and in the Quality Strategy for NHS Scotland one of the three quality ambitions that provide the focus for everything is patient centred care.

This patient experience theme contains key resources and information about research and organisations that focus on co-design and production, working with users and measuring patient experience.

Page last edited: 12 October 2011