Exploring how to measure patients' experience of care in hospital to improve services.

With the new requirement that patients' experience of care be measured as part of the drive to improve quality across the NHS, acute trusts face the challenge of choosing from a potentially dizzying array of options for carrying this out. The Point of Care programme, which aims to improve patients' experience of care in hospital and help staff to deliver the quality of care they would want for themselves and their own families, here explores its thinking on the topic. Although many questions remain, we conclude that the most effective approach is likely to be one that incorporates both quantitative and qualitative information to give a more complete picture of the care pathway in individual trusts. We encourage trusts--and in particular individuals responsible for and/or who want to improve patients' experience--to draw on the range of measures to develop strategies that are most appropriate for their individual settings and needs.