Using 'nudges' to co-design improvements in patient care
Raising the bar on the national patient experience survey is a report which responds to the national adult inpatient experience survey results by investigating the lower scoring areas of the survey and recommending interventions to improve these results. The report details 'quick wins' and 'big wins' to improve the patient experience of care.
The second report Phase two: Co-designing nudges is now available.
We are seeing some positive changes to the lower-scoring areas of the national survey. The Partners in Care and medication safety programme teams have been working with the behavioural science team at Ogilvy, to develop low-cost interventions called 'nudges' to improve these lower-scoring areas.
What is a 'nudge'?
Vishal George, head of behavioural science at Ogilvy, explains that a nudge (a term coined by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein in their 2008 book Nudge) is a change to an environment, which alters the behaviour of individuals without changing their incentives.
Examples include an improved discharge summary for patients, follow-up phone calls about medications and a 'home safety' checklist.
What has this got to do with improving care?
Using insights from behavioural science, the new report details how Nelson Marlborough, Northland and Waikato district health boards (DHBs) worked with Ogilvy and the Commission to develop interventions to improve the inpatient experience. We thank these DHBs for their time and participation.
The report is available to download below.