The feedback to operating theatre staff of
perioperative patient experience - the why and the how.
Anaesthesia, audit, Operating rooms personnel
M. Hill1, P. Daniel2, N. Gupta2, A. Kallu2, K. Randeva2
 1Plymouth Hospitals - Plymouth (United Kingdom),  2Plymouth University Peninsula School of
Medicine and Dentistry - Plymouth (United Kingdom)

Background and Goal of Study: Safety climate assessement in a 900+ bed university hospital in the UK has demonstrated only 30% of theatre teams get adequate feedback form their local leadership. Subsequent debriefing of these results identified that theatre staff do not get feedback on patient experience, outcomes or team functioning. An understanding and appreciation of the high quality care that perioperative teams deliver is crucial to provide meaning in work, job satisfaction and to help
prevent burnout amongst theatre staff. We hypothesised that improving feedback on patient experience to perioperative teams would improve staff morale, job satisfaction and reduce burnout, and with the potential to improve patient outcomes.
Materials and Methods: Building on pilot work in one theatre, 4 medical students will lead the development and spread of feedback to theatre staff of perioperative patient experience. The pilot started with paper feedback with a plan to develop a computer system that could be used by patient volunteers to collect the feedback. This will be fed back to the theatre staff. The frequency and the exact method of feedback needs to be determined through iterative tests of change.
Results and Discussion: At baseline theatre staff reported that 67% of them believed that morale impacted on patient care, 75% wished to know more about patient experience, 100% that getting feedback on patient experience would influence their practice and the effectiveness of the team, 83% that knowing more about patient outcomes would improve job satisfaction. 25% of staff wished to receive the feedback weekly and 75% of staff wished to receive it monthly. No staff wished to receive it on a daily basis. The frequency and best method of feedback will be tested by iterative tests of change.
Conclusion(s): Feedback to operating theatre staff on perioperative patient experience has the potential to improve staff morale, job satisfaction and decrease burnout and to improve patient experience and outcomes. Further work is required to test the use of iPads and patient volunteers to collect the perioperative feedback.  Institutional inertia can provide a barrier to improvement.
The process has been successful in introducing quality improvement methodology to undergraduate medical students.

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