Compass rolls out healthcare initiative to boost patient experience


Compass Group UK & Ireland’s healthcare division is launching its colleague culture programme, to focus on patient satisfaction across its 23 NHS partner healthcare Trusts, the senior living care home estate and new private healthcare clients.

‘Positive Impressions’ will support 10,000 employees to deliver the very best standards in service across catering, cleaning, portering and security.

The programme, initially developed in Compass’ US Healthcare business, has been operational within several Compass UK&I private healthcare hospitals since 2019.

The programme has also been trialled with two NHS hospital sites, further evolving to suit the specific needs of NHS settings. Across these hospitals, the programme has delivered enhanced patient satisfaction results due to increased engagement when planning service delivery.

Positive Impressions is designed to measure the patient experience and enhance patient-centred training, to help teams deliver care based on communication, awareness, respect and empathy.

The initiative stands out because it brings experience and optimised human connections together, empowering Compass’ people to make a real-time difference, from facts, feedback and understanding.

Positive Impressions is built around four cornerstones – defining moments, engagement, expertise and tailored to fit.

The initiative builds on a culture of empowerment and training for colleagues, looking after their wellbeing and development, as well as giving them the tools to deliver the best service possible. The training around this involves classroom sessions, refresher courses and coaching, with a focus on being inclusive and accessible.

The implementation of Positive Impressions is being led by Compass Healthcare’s Head of Patient Experience, Stacey Dobson.

Having worked in post for over a year, she has a clear remit to understand the patient feedback across all sites and to spearhead cultural behaviours. Stacey leads a Patient Experience Community, made up of Patient Experience Managers and onsite ambassadors, who will support the roll out and ongoing delivery of the programme.

Russell Blake, Managing Director - Healthcare at Compass Group UK & Ireland, commented, “We live by our Performance with Heart philosophy and Positive Impressions truly delivers for patients, residents and our people - creating an approach that is taken from feedback at each hospital or care home.

'This programme allows us to make reactive and tangible differences to care and therefore health outcomes. We are committed to the roll out of the programme and believe it will enhance skills and the services we deliver.”

Stacey Dobson, Head of Patient Experience for Healthcare, noted, “The pandemic shone a light on the impact our teams can have on the patient experience and the imperative services they deliver from cleanliness to nutrition and so many more.

'We knew there was an opportunity to go further and developing the Positive Impressions programme for our NHS and senior living clients, will support us to create bespoke solutions based on feedback.

'The great thing about this programme is that it builds two-way communication from patient or resident to our teams, to allow us to react and improve.”