High quality care provision is a key priority for the RMBI and as such the RMBI conducts annual satisfaction surveys at all of its care homes to assess and measure the satisfaction levels of people who use its services.
The surveys are sent to both residents and their relatives/friends in order to gain a full picture of the effectiveness of the service provision at RMBI Homes.
To ensure confidentiality and encourage open feedback, the RMBI works with an independent company called Laing & Buisson. The results are then benchmarked to the care sector in order to gain an understanding of how the RMBI compares within the industry. Below is a summary of the results.
This year a total of 932 surveys were sent to RMBI residents with a response rate of 59% and 947 surveys were sent to relatives/friends of residents with an overall response rate of 49%. These response rates are high for a survey of this nature within the sector and a significant improvement to previous years surveys.
KEY OUTCOMES
Both residents and relatives were asked a series of questions on different aspects of service provision and life within the Home, and were required to indicate whether or not they agreed with certain statements in order to demonstrate their satisfaction levels and whether they felt the service quality met their requirements.
The Home
This section of the survey sought to ascertain how satisfied people living at the Homes were with their living accommodation. Overall, residents responded positively and a high proportion of people were able to agree completely with the statements given in the questionnaire, indicating high levels of satisfaction. 91% of residents stated that they liked their room and over 90% stated that their room was private and that they felt safe and secure in the Home. Similar responses were also evident in the relatives survey and over 70% of relatives stated that their relative or friend settled in well at their chosen Home.
Food and Drink
Residents were asked about their experience of the catering provision at the Home. The answers to the questions in this section indicated there was room for improvement in the catering, especially around issues of:-
• Enjoyment of the food.
• The choice offered by the menus.
• The quality of the food.
• The temperature at which the food is served.
Staff
Encouragingly in this section of the survey it was found that 93% of residents felt that staff were polite to them and were helpful, and that staff listened to them – 90% and 80% respectively. These results prove that the people living in RMBI Homes are treated with dignity and respect, an ethos that is core to the RMBI. 88% of relatives and friends also felt that the staff at the Homes had a positive attitude to the residents and that the Management team were easily accessible. 93% of relatives were very satisfied with the responsiveness of staff to matters that concerned them.
Activities
Activities play an important role in the Homes and the scores in this section were above average. A high proportion of residents (76%) said that they knew what activities were going on in the Home and 57% felt that there were things to do throughout the day. The results also highlighted that 49% preferred organised activities and entertainment, whilst 45% liked to do things on their own.
The residents’ answers to these questions revealed that more could be done to encourage stimulation and it is certainly an area the RMBI will seek to improve in the coming months.
Help and Support
People’s responses to the questions in this section were very positive, again indicating high levels of satisfaction. 81% felt that they could talk to someone about their concerns and 80% felt that the staff involved them in the way they are cared for.
The number of residents who felt that they were involved in the way they are cared for is a huge increase to a similar question which was asked in previous years where less than 50% of residents agreed with this statement. This excellent result can be attributed to the considerable work that has taken place on the care planning process at all RMBI Homes. The way in which the care plans are now completed is more person centred and is used to deliver care. Furthermore relatives and friends of residents also stated that they were involved in the planning and delivery of the care provided to their relative/friend (85%).
A very high 73% of relatives felt that their relative/friend had the opportunity to live life as fully as possible in the care Home environment and again 73% said that they were satisfied with the way their relative or friend was being cared for.
Recommending RMBI Homes
Very encouragingly the results found that 91% of residents and relatives said that they would recommend their RMBI Home to someone else. This result clearly demonstrates that overall the people living in RMBI Homes and their relatives are very satisfied with the services provided.
Next steps
The satisfaction surveys are an important part of the RMBI’s quality assurance programme. The results from the surveys have been helpful in capturing the lived experience of people who use RMBI services and that of their relatives. The RMBI will continue to evaluate the results from the satisfaction surveys and will work with the Home Management teams to make sure that were areas of improvement have been identified these are thoroughly addressed and robust improvement plans are developed and implemented.
