Improving the patient's experience

A government hospital in a low-income • country wants to set up a corneal eye bank. The ministry of health can only identify a few patients who would benefit from this service and believes that any additional money should rather be spent on cataract surgery, as the need for it is greater. The ministry suggests investing the money in boosting cataract surgical services and reviewing the need for an eye bank at a future date. seeking improvements by focusing on areas of influence In a resource-poor environment, it can be more difficult to improve quality. For example, if the hospital cannot obtain intraocular lenses (IOLs), then how can it provide a high-quality cataract surgical service? In such instances, we must try to improve quality in the areas where our organisation has influence. We should try to build relationships with an eye hospital that has IOLs, or seek to change the ministry of health's procurement policy through lobbying in the national prevention of blindness committee, or seek support from an external donor. Conclusion We need to make eye care and good vision accessible to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. In order to achieve this, both clinical and non-clinical services need to be of the best possible quality. This requires the involvement of all eye care staff to regularly discuss the quality of care and to identify ways in which practice can be improved with available resources. improvement in quality is part of 1 the day-today work of any eye unit and every eye worker Both clinical and non-clinical care 2 affect the quality of service Quality can be improved in small 3 affordable increments improving quality can save money 4 in the long term but usually requires some initial investment Some improvements in quality may 5 not be affordable at this time and place Each organisation must try to 6 improve quality within its resource constraints. When arriving at the eye care unit, patients often feel unsure of what is going to happen, anxious, and vulnerable. Many have never found themselves in a hospital setting before or have never travelled or slept away from home. It is an integral part of eye care to make sure a patient's experience is a positive one. This article offers suggestions for good, evidence-based, practice to improve this experience. Our suggestions should necessarily be adapted to local context: resource-poor settings are particularly challenging …