January 2012
We want our patients to feel safe, valued and cared for at Spire Bristol and are always making efforts to improve patient care and service, and it was against this background that we decided to launch hourly ward rounds here at Spire Bristol Hospital in December 2010.
On admission, our patients are given a welcome card which explains our Hourly Round process and lets them know that they will receive a ward visit from a nurse at least every hour in the day, and at least every two hours during the night.
We use the mnemonic H.E.L.P to help ensure the right questions are asked:
Handling – do you need help changing your position?
Environment – do you have everything you need within reach?
Loo – do you need to use the bathroom?
Pain – are we doing everything we can to relieve your pain?
If the patient is away from their bedroom at the time of the Hourly Round (for example in x-ray) a card will be left on the pillow explaining that the next Round would be within the hour.
We know Hourly Rounds are very popular with patients, not only because they tell us on a daily basis, but also because in our latest customer satisfaction survey, 90 per cent of patients said our staff were doing a “very good or excellent” job, while 99 per cent said that by introducing hourly rounds, we are doing all that we could to reduce pain.
Our “back to basics” approach has even been recognised internally, with the Bristol hospital having been shortlisted for a National Spire Healthcare award.