The NHS Confederation have published another paper in their occasional series that looks at interactions between the NHS, individuals and communities.
This paper explores the potential for using and sharing information in the NHS. It looks at the costs and benefits of informing and communicating with patients through web and social media platforms versus the costs of not doing so effectively.
Managing information is an essential part of delivering good healthcare but historically difficult to get right. While the NHS drowns in information and spends more and more to gather it, it has struggled to use it to good effect for patients, often shying away from being transparent about how services are run and responding openly when things go wrong.
The short (8-page) paper makes the following key points:
- The NHS has often struggled to use information to good effect
- It is cheaper than ever to communicate online and the mechanisms available shift power towards patients and citizens
- Patient feedback will have more influence to improve patient care in the future
- Successful providers will get better at engaging their local populations
- NHS organisations need to adapt how they communicate with patients and the public
- Transparency of information drives change but formulaic responses to feedback can harm NHS organisations’ reputation
Links
An uneasy consensus: patients, citizens and the NHS (PDF). NHS Confederation, May 2012 Paper 3.
Jim Kerr photo courtesy of KtD / Shutterstock.com
Interesting! Don’t want to alienate the people not online but it all would otherwise appear reasonable! The idea that consultation can damage reputation hits like a refreshing start being admission of the obvious-to-everyone-else.