Patient experience

Patient experience means putting the patient and their experience at the heart of quality improvement. As well as our policy work on this vital measure of quality, we run a number of programmes that aim to improve patient experience in care environments.

Overview

Projects on patient experience

The Point of Care programme aims to help health care staff in hospitals deliver the quality of care they would want for themselves and their own families.

Enhancing the Healing Environment

The Enhancing the Healing Environment (EHE) programme encourages and enables nurse-led teams to work in partnership with patients to improve the environment in which they deliver care.

See more related projects

The Francis Inquiry report

Anticipating the Francis Inquiry report

We analyse what the forthcoming recommendations might mean for the NHS, and what needs to change in the health system to protect patients.

Improving the quality of care for frail older people

Joanna Goodrich looks at the changes that can be made at all levels to significantly improve older people’s experience of care.

Reading Room

Want to know more about patient experience?

For more resources on patient experience, including reading lists, database searches and useful web pages, visit our Reading Room.

Related articles

Read our articles on patient experience.

Relevant publications

Developing supportive design for people with dementia The King’s Fund’s Enhancing the Healing Environment Programme 2009-2012

9 Jan 2013

Sarah Waller CBE

Abigail Masterson, Hedley Finn

Health policy under the coalition government A mid-term assessment

28 Nov 2012

Sarah Gregory, Anna Dixon, Chris Ham

See more related publications

Relevant events

6 Dec 2012

Person-centred integrated care Making it a reality for patients and families

28 Nov 2012

The King's Fund Annual Conference 2012

See more related events

Blogs on patient experience

Do personal health budgets improve quality of life for patients?

12 Dec 2012

Angela Coulter

How must we change care systems to meet the needs of the future patient?

7 Dec 2012

Jocelyn Cornwell

See more related blogs

Our comments on patient experience

The King's Fund's statement on Mid Staffordshire hospital

6 Jan 2013

NHS performance holding up, but treacherous waters are ahead

28 Nov 2012

See more related press releases

Relevant audio/video

Don Redding: using a person-centred narrative to drive co-ordinated care

Don Redding

Elizabeth Fradd: why communication and information matter

Elizabeth Fradd

See more related audio/video

Useful links

Staff stories

These stories present some of the issues staff face in trying to ensure a positive patient experience.

Enhancing the Healing Environment projects

See which organisations we have worked with to help develop their environments of care.

Dementia care

We have launched a new programme to improve the care environment for people with dementia.

Our work on this topic

Press release

Patients don't use quality measures when choosing a hospital says The King's Fund

4 Nov 2009

Blog

Will payments linked to patient experience improve quality?

23 Sep 2009

Veena Raleigh

Multimedia: Audio

Robin Youngson on compassion

21 Sep 2009

Robin Youngson

Press release

The King's Fund statement in response to the Patients Association report 'Patients not numbers, people not statistics'

27 Aug 2009

Article

A patient's journey: Mesothelioma

14 Aug 2009

Jocelyn Cornwell , Kieran Sweeney, Liz Toy

Publication

Measures of patients' experience in hospital

3 Aug 2009

Angela Coulter, Jocelyn Cornwell , Ray Fitzpatrick

Article

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

27 Jul 2009

Jocelyn Cornwell, Joanna Goodrich

Article

What's the difference between a hospital and a bottling factory?

20 Jul 2009

Jocelyn Cornwell , Alec Morton

Article

Exploring how to improve patients' experience in hospital at both national and local levels

6 Jul 2009

Jocelyn Cornwell, Joanna Goodrich

Article

Exploring the wide range of terminology used to describe care that is patient-centred

19 May 2009

Joanna Goodrich

Pages