The Fifteen Steps Challenge: Quality from a patient's perspective; An inpatient toolkit (NHS England, 2017)

Summary

The NHS is committed to putting patients at the heart of what we do and it was a mother’s comment at a patient and family involvement workshop that kick-started the 15 Steps Challenge. She said about her daughter, whose condition needed frequent inpatient stays, “I can tell what kind of care my daughter is going to get within 15 steps of walking onto every new ward”.

This mum was not a clinician or quality assurance manager, but very quickly she could tell some important things about the quality of care in the healthcare settings that she and her daughter were attending.

Her comment highlights how important it is to understand what good quality care looks and feels like from a patient and carer’s perspective. Our patients have high expectations for safe, good quality care, delivered in welcoming and clean environments. This quote inspired the development of a series of 15 Steps Challenge guides.

“The 15 Steps Challenge” is a suite of toolkits that explore different healthcare settings through the eyes of patients and relatives. With an easy to use methodology and alignment to NHS strategic drivers, these resources support staff to listen to patients and carers and understand the improvements that we can make. The toolkits help to explore patient experience and are a way of involving patients, carers and families in quality assurance processes.