Patient Led Assessment of the Care Environment (PLACE) 2014
About Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment
Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment (PLACE) are a self-assessment of the non-clinical services which contribute to the environment in hospitals, hospices and independent organisations providing NHS-funded care in England.
The assessments look at cleanliness, the condition of the buildings, how well the buildings meets the needs of those who use it e.g. signage, car parking, the availability and quality of food and drink and how well privacy and dignity is supported by the environment.
The audits are undertaken by a combination of patients, the public and other bodies with an interest in healthcare such as Healthwatch, in partnership with the NHS Trust staff, using a range of criteria to identify how well the trust is performing and identifying areas for improvement.
The overall aim is to focus on what patients see and say.
What We Did
We wanted to have Healthwatch representatives on the PLACE visits at all the NHS Trusts in Hertfordshire to act as independent observers in order to share good practice with the individual Trusts and to create a consistent approach to PLACE across the County.
Healthwatch Hertfordshire representatives took part in 30 PLACE visits covering the 2 acute trusts in Hertfordshire (Stevenage and Watford) as well as Barnet and Chase Hospitals, our mental health trust and our community trust. These took place from March 2014 to May 2014.
The focus of PLACE is now on giving the public a greater role in these audits. Is this how it felt for our public assessors? Our representatives provided detailed feedback on their experiences covering 3 areas:
- The pre visit planning and training
- The visit itself
- Post visit
What We Found:
- Trusts worked hard to manage what is a large and sometimes complex operation and there were a number of areas of good practice that should be shared more widely to benefit all patient assessors and improve patient experience.
- Trusts need to demonstrate that their assessment ‘teams’ are a random selection of the public, patients, carers and interested organisations and where possible ensure that they include a HwH representative. A recruitment and publicity strategy for PLACE is important for each Trust to develop to meet its own needs.
- A clear approach to training needs to be thought through by each Trust before PLACE starts.
- Planning for the visits needs to start early and be coordinated across organisations.
- Feedback to volunteers should be formalised to ensure volunteers feel valued.
- Clarity on paying travel expenses is essential.
We welcome Healthwatch Hertfordshire’s report following the 2014 PLACE programme, and the recommendations contained within it. This has helped to guide us in planning for 2015; particularly the suggestion of carer representation in the assessments teams. As a result we have invited Carers in Hertfordshire to work with us on the 2015 PLACE programme which we feel will add a different perspective and viewpoint to our assessments and subsequent learning.
Read the full report here
If you require this report in another format, please get in touch.
