Communication and Publicity

Pre-survey communication with staff

The best way to ensure your survey is a success is to work hard in the beginning to involve those people who have the most impact on patients’ experiences and who will be responsible for responding to the results of the survey. We suggest you put together a small team of people who are key stakeholders and involve them in decisions. Depending on the size and type of your organisation, groups to consider include:

•  Caldicott Guardian
•  Board members
•  Doctors, nurses and other health care staff
•  Members of patient groups with a special interest in the trust
•  Patients and carers
•  Medical records personnel or Patient Administration System (PAS) staff
•  Managers

Staff or directors responsible for:

• Clinical governance
• Patient advice and liaison service (PALS)
• Quality improvement
• Strategic planning

Keeping everyone informed

Notify as many staff members as possible about the survey, in case patients contact the trust asking questions about the questionnaire they have received. This works well with organisations of every size and resulted in significantly higher response rates during the development phase of the DPEP survey tools. Patients can be expected to ask receptionists, practice managers, doctors, nurses, other healthcare staff, patient liaison officers, or the Chief Executive's office about the survey, even when your covering letters give contact details for the survey manager(s) and the dedicated helpline. Notify front line staff and executive offices that a survey is being conducted, and give them the name and number of a contact person. Survey manager(s) should be prepared to respond to these calls quickly as this improves the experiences of those participating in the survey.

Staff could be notified of the survey through a variety of methods:

• Electronic (e.g. e-bulletins, website, intranet)
• Paper-based (e.g. staff briefings, newsletters, flyers, posters)
• Face-to-face (e.g. meetings, presentations and events)
  

Publicising the survey externally

To help promote involvement and maximise response rates, the survey can be publicised to patients and the public through a number of ways, for example:

• Send a press release to the local media to raise awareness of the survey and gain publicity just before the survey takes place. If carrying out the survey at Trust-level, you could talk to your hospital’s press office for more ways in which you can gain publicity locally 

• Put up posters in your waiting areas that promote the importance your organisation places on gathering patient feedback 

• To encourage patients to respond, we recommend you illustrate how your organisation has acted on feedback from patients in the past; patients are likely to be more motivated to take part in the survey if they can see tangible outcomes from a previous work

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