Mirror Meetings to improve patient-centred care

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Initiative Type
Service Improvement
System Improvement
Status
Sustained
Added
Last updated

Summary

Mirror meetings provide the opportunity to focus in depth on quantitative information obtained from a patient satisfaction survey and to colour this information with 'narrative' or qualitative information. Mirroring in healthcare is all about putting hospital staff in the patient’s shoes. Patients offer unique knowledge, experience and information about the organisation.

A Mirror Meeting (MM) is a group discussion with patients and/or their relatives with an independent facilitator asking this group how the care was experienced. In the background, employees involved can be present as listeners. Hearing experiences of patients reminds healthcare professionals of the situation, the patient’s needs and provide the professional with eye-opening moments for improvement of care.

A MM will give the organisation the opportunity to obtain this knowledge, experiences and information in a unique way. 

At the Princess Alexandra Hospital's Colonoscopy and Hepatology departments, we developed the mirror meetings as a project team with consumers as part of the project team.

Key dates
Aug 2021
Dec 2022
Implementation sites
Gastroenterology & Hepatology Department, PAH.
Partnerships
Two consumers particpated in the project team

Aim

To focus more in depth on quantitative information and colour with 'narrative' or qualitative information to give the health care professional an insight of the patient's or their relatives' perspectives and thereby improve patient-centred care.

Benefits

  • concrete improvement proposals based on patient's perspective added value 
  • improvement of the coordination of care
  • it leads to a change in attitude and behaviour among health care professionals

Background

The MM emphasises the patients’ perspective of the care they receive and acts as a reminder to employees of its significance. During daily work, blind spots easily arise in the professional activities. The power of a MM lies in the direct communication between health care professional and care recipients. It gives health care professionals and managers an overview of positive points, excellent points and recommendations for improvement from the perspective of patients and their loved ones. The direct feedback provides them a very powerful incentive to focus on patient-centred care. It leads to a change in attitude and behaviour among the health care professionals. The care providers are given a 'mirror image' by their own patients. 

Solutions Implemented

We have held three Mirror Meetings in 18 months. Based on the outcome of the Mirror Meetings we implemented the following changes:

  • patient rounding in the outpatient setting to keep the patient and their family or carers informed
  • "Hello, my name is" and language badges were introduced
  • a standardised template for discharge via Transit Care Hub was developed 
  • update of our information brochures to improve communication
  • provide patients with procedure reports and pathology outcomes when available.

Evaluation and Results

Patient Reported Experienced Measures (PREMS) results:

  • decrease in complaints from patients about unexpected waiting times
  • patients give positive comments about health care professionals introducing themselves
  • improvement in de-escalating any issues raised at an early stage, by finding timely solutions
  • feedback from staff indicate they feel more connected with patients

Lessons Learnt

  • The input from our consumers was crucial for formulation and selection of questions and to manage the project from all perspectives.
  • Timely recruitment of sufficient participants takes effort and reminders are essential to guarantee attendance.
  • The impact of the patients’ feedback was felt by the people that were directly present during the meeting (face-to-face or via videoconferencing), but had far less impact on people who viewed the recording or read the report. This caused some limitations when team discussions for improvement actions took place.
  • The time of the day we held the Mirror Meeting probably did play a role in the numbers of participants that attended.
  • Patients were better prepared when they received the questions a few days before the meeting.
  • A facilitator is a not a health care professional, and they require additional clinical background.

References

 

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Key contact

Vera Meeusen
CNC Endoscopy Unit
Princess Alexandra Hospital
07 3176 9170
vera.meeusen@health.qld.gov.au

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