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ANNEX III: Topic guide, Inpatients
INPATIENT Focus group topic guide
Admission to hospital
Planned admissions
Was your admission a planned (waiting list) or an emergency?
How long did you wait?
Did you think the waiting time was about right? Too long? Shorter than you expected?
Were you given an accurate waiting time when you were first told you would have to go into hospital?
Was the waiting list system fair?
Was your admission cancelled, why was that?
Were you given a choice of admission times, would you have liked a choice?
Information before admission
What information were you given before admission?
Was the information accurate?
Was there anything else you would have liked to know?
Anything else
Are there any other issues about your admission that were important?
Emergency admissions
Ambulance
If you came by ambulance how were you treated by the ambulance crew?
Organisation
How organised was the Emergency Department?
Waiting in A&E
How long did you wait before you were assessed by a doctor or nurse (triaged)? How long did you wait to be treated by a doctor or nurse?
Did you think the waiting time was about right? Too long? Shorter than you expected?
Was the system for seeing patients fair?
Were you told accurately how long you would have to wait?
Were you given enough/the right information in the Emergency Department?
Did you feel threatened or bothered by other patients while in the emergency department?
Anything else
Are there any other issues about the Emergency Department that were important to you?
The Hospital and Ward
Location
How far did you have to travel?
Transport/Parking
How did you get to the hospital?
If you used public transport how good was it?
Is car parking available? Was it convenient, free/reasonably priced/expensive?
The Room/Ward
How many rooms or wards did you stay in?
Was it a single or mixed sex ward? If mixed sex, did you mind?
Did you have to share toilets and bathrooms with the opposite sex? If yes, did you mind?
Did you have enough privacy?
Was the ward noisy - during the day and the night?
Cleanliness
How clean was the hospital?
Did you notice the doctors and nurses washing their hands?
Was their anything about cleanliness or infection that particularly worried you?
Facilities
Was there a telephone you could use? How much did it cost? How convenient was it? Did patients/relatives have to pay (much) to call in?
Could you use your mobile phone if you wanted?
Was there a TV? Did you have to pay?
Food and drinks
How good was the food?
Was there enough?
Was the food hot enough?
Were you given drinks often enough?
Were you helped to eat/drink if you needed it?
Staff
Doctors
Overall
How would you describe the doctors that you had contact with?
Was there one doctor in charge, did you see that doctor?
Did you have confidence and trust in the doctors? What is it that would give you confidence?
Did doctors spend enough time with you?
Skills and experience
Did doctors have a good knowledge of your medical history and how to treat your condition?
Communication
Did doctors listen to you?
Did they answer your questions?
Did they use language you could understand?
Did they talk in front of you as if you were not there?
Did you feel comfortable talking to them?
Anything else
Are there any other issues about doctors that are important?
Nurses
Overall
Did you have confidence and trust in the nurses? What is it that would give you confidence?
Were there enough nurses on duty?
Would you like the choice of seeing male or female nurses?
Skills and experience
Did they know enough about your illness and treatment to give you the best care?
Communication
Do the nurses listen to you?
Did nurses answer your questions?
Did they use language you can understand?
Did they talk in front of you as if you are not there?
Other healthcare professionals
Which other members of staff did you have contact with regarding your care and treatment, for example Physiotherapists, Speech and Language Therapists?
[Follow same topics covered above for doctors and nurses where appropriate]
Care and treatment
Involvement in decisions
Were you involved in decisions about your care?
Did you want to be involved? If so, in what aspects: all or just some?
Information
Were you given enough information on your treatment and how it was progressing?
How much information were you given verbally?
How much information were you given in writing?
Tests
Were you told why you needed a test?
Were you told what would happen during the test?
Have you had the test results? How long did that take?
Surgery
Before the operation
Beforehand, were you given enough information about the purpose of the operation?
Were any alternatives to surgery discussed?
Were you told of about the risks of having the operation?
Did you meet the surgeon before the operation?
Did someone answer your questions about the operation?
Were you told accurately how you would feel after the operation?
After the operation
Did a doctor tell you how the operation had gone?
Anything else
Are there any other issues about surgery that are important?
Pain
How much pain did you experience?
Did staff do everything they could to relieve the pain?
Are there any other issues about pain management that were important?
Worries and fears
Were there any particular things that you were worried about when in hospital?
Were you able to discuss your worries and fears with anyone?
Medicines
Were you given any new medicines?
Did someone explain what the new medicines were for?
Did someone tell you how to take the medicines?
Did someone explain any side effects?
Were you given enough medicine?
Leaving Hospital
Timing of discharge
Was the discharge too soon, at the right time or too late?
Were you ready to be discharged?
Was the discharge well planned?
Were you told in advance when you would be discharged?
Were the necessary arrangement made to support you at home?
Was the discharged delayed at all, if so why?
Information on discharge
Were you given enough information about what you should or should not do at home?
Was your family given enough information to help you recover?
Were you told who to contact if you had worries or questions?
Were you told when you could resume your normal activities? (Driving, work, housework, etc.)
Transport
Did you need transport to take you home? If so, was it organised by the hospital?
Anything else?
Are there things that we haven't discussed that are important?
Was there anything particularly good about your hospital care?
If there was one thing that needs to be improved the most what was it?
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