ISD's customer survey report and action plan 2008

INTRODUCTION

The Customer Relations Group carried out a Customer Satisfaction Survey on behalf of ISD.   The survey was emailed out on October 29 2007, with customers given two weeks to respond by 12 November 2007.

The main objectives were:

• Measure overall product & service satisfaction
• Gather feedback and act upon the results
• Pilot for the further development of this annual survey

METHODOLOGY

The electronic survey was emailed to a total of 1119 customers.   Recipients were chosen from 4 separate contact areas. In addition to this an invitation to complete the survey was placed on the ISD website, however this only attracted 5 responses.

• ISD website registered users 
• Customers who had recently submitted an information request
• ISD customer newsletter customers
• General mailing list contacts 

381 responses were received giving us a return rate of 34%.

SURVEY CONTENTS

We asked customers to rate or comment on each of our main service areas:

ISD website
Information Request Service
ISD Customer Newsletter

The survey also gave customers an opportunity to provide suggestions for improvements and new services and to comment on what they valued most or least about ISD.

CUSTOMER DEMOGRAPHICS

The respondents were classified in the following customer groups

• NHS Health Board -158  (41.5%) 
• NHS Primary Care -74  (19.4%)  
• NHS NSS - 39 (10.2%)
• Government  - 38 (10.0%)
• Others – 26 (6.8%)
• Research - 22 (5.8%)
• Professional body -10 (2.6%) 
• Public - 9  (2.4%)
• Media - 5 (1.3%)
   

KEY RESULTS

Responses were in the main positive with most customers satisfied with the service being provided by ISD staff. 
This is what was most valued about ISD’s work:

• Range of information
• Availability of information
• National comparisons/benchmarking data
• Quality of Information
• Experience and knowledge
• Professionalism, efficiency and helpfulness

The results for each area are set out below:

ISD WEBSITE 

• “Overall satisfaction with Site”  63% very good or good, 31% rated it OK and 6% rated it poor or had no opinion.
• “Site Search “ 41% rated very good or good and 41% rated it OK
• “A-Z index” 53% rated very good or good and 29% rated it OK
• “Top 3 topics searched for” Inpatient /Outpatient activity (116) Quality & outcomes framework (101) & Waiting times (96).
• There were  47 Comments about the website 

ISD CUSTOMER UPDATE

• Recipients were asked about their level of interest   17.5% read it all, 32.1% read some of it, 43.8% skimmed and 6.6% didn’t read.
• “Content”  72% rated it very good or good,  17% rated it OK, 1% rated it poor and 19% had no opinion.
• “Design & Layout” 61% rated it very good or good, 23% rated it OK, 1% rated it poor and 16% had no opinion.
• Recipients were asked to comment about topics that they would like to see in the Customer Update

INFORMATION REQUEST SERVICE

• “Satisfied with the information provided by ISD” 95% answered YES
• “ISD’s responses are clear and easy to understand” 96% answered YES
• Recipents were asked to rate our Customer service:

“Professionalism” 93% rated it very good or good, 5% rated it OK, 0.8% rated it poor and 1.2% had no opinion.

“Efficiency” 89% rated it very good or good, 9% rated it OK, 1.2% rated it poor and 1.2% had no opinion.

“Helpfulness” 94% rated it very good or good, 5% rated it OK, no-one rated it poor and 1.2% had no opinion.

GENERAL SURVEY QUESTIONS

• “ What do you value most about ISD’s work?”   (204 comments)
  The top 2 areas of response related to:

Availability, quality and range of health information.
Helpful, responsive, professional and knowledgeable staff

• “Is there an area/topic to which you think we need to devote more resource/ effort?”    (149 responses)

Listed here are the topics which were mentioned 3 or more times:

More CHP level reporting

Make progress toward more real-time/ more up to date information

Make more usage of CHI and existing linkage opportunities

More Mental Health analyses

Increased focus on primary care – especially non - GP info

ISD to share knowledge & skills with colleagues in the service.

To verify consistency and quality of activity data collection

• “Is there an area/topic to which you think we need to devote less resource/ effort?”   (13 comments)

The following topics were mentioned 2/3 times

More concentration on Health Service than Government work

Waiting Times

• “Any other general comments on ISD? ” (84 comments)

This section mainly attracted compliments.  There were a few areas for ISD to consider in its work plans, which had generally been mentioned elsewhere i.e.

Website doesn’t live up to the high standards of the other ISD services

Some customers were keen to know more about what information is available and how to find out more.

IMPLEMENTED & PROPOSED ACTIONS

An actions log (see Appendix 1) has been created,  issues have been logged and responsibility for the issue has been assigned.    Work is underway in addressing many of these issues.

CONCLUSION

There is a high level of overall satisfaction with ISD services.  However,  it is clear from the results that tackling the issues relating to customers finding the relevant information on the website, will be one of our priorities.

The whole process of undertaking this survey from conception through to final analyses has given us a valuable framework for the future.  It also provides us with a visible baseline whereby we can monitor our performance in the future.

ISD Customer Relations Group ( CRG )
January 2008

APPENDIX 1

Customer Survey Actions Log 2008

Issue/comment raised by survey	Actions identified	Team/key person	Progress
ISD Website
A tutorial to explain how to get the most from it might help.	“How to use this site”  page to be created.	Chris Dunn 0131 275 6233	Completed
Search results don't always give me what I expect	"How to search effectively" page to be created.  Site contributors/ analysts to construct text to make it easier for customers to scan quickly.	"
Search results page could be improved especially the placement of text which appears right at the left margin	Search results page format now adjusted to provide more space around results.	"
Need to improve navigation - how to find information in the site	Site general navigation tools like A-Z more clearly advertised &  A-Z link added to homepage.	"	Completed
	List of tables (analyses) to be created on website – similar to old paper compendium index of tables	"
Sometimes it is a little difficult to access what you are looking for the first time you use it.  Perhaps the index needs a drop-down menu with a bit more detail?	ISD Library to liaise with contributors to extend the A-Z coverage.	Alan Jamieson
It would  be useful to have some sort of staff directory.	Contacts directory page to be created ( by topic )	Chris Dunn	Completed
You seem to have to go through endless links to get to the data you want.	Consider ways for customers to get more quickly to most popular topics e.g. links direct to “ top hits “ from the homepage ?	Chris McCluskey
Provision of section of website for NHS analysts/Health intelligence professionals with useful analytical tools/downloads/statistical templates as per many of PHOs in England & Wales provide.	Some info already available on ScotPHO website. http://www.scotpho.org.uk/home/resources/methodology/method_intro.asp http://www.scotpho.org.uk/home/Comparativehealth/Profiles/Interactive_profiler.asp This will be subject of further discussion between ISD statisticians and their customers	ISD Analysts
On topics where there are government targets, it would be helpful for your commentary to always set out what they are.	Normally this would be for the Scottish Government to provide in their releases.  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health
On occasion the horribly long URLs the site generates are problematic e.g. if you want to send someone a link	Shorter urls now created for most topic areas.	Chris Dunn
Because there’s so much information it takes time to build up knowledge of where things are. For pharmacists there should be a straight link to the tariff.	There is an existing Drug Tariff link in the A-Z for customers
Once you are familiar with it the site is relatively straighforward to use - people new to it find it more difficult. I would like to see cross-references between areas.	Coordinators to discuss common ground /potential cross refs across site with their colleagues - Web Editorial Group and analysts	ISD Analysts
You don’t break the data down into small enough geographical units for me.	ISD analysts need to identify what further breakdowns are required. ISD is very conscious of potential disclosure issues but see reference to Profiles: introduction which gives info at constituency and community levels. Also ISD can provide responses to Information requests which may give more detail than is published on the website. See our information request protocol at: http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/755.html ISD is developing  SHIS ( Scottish Health Information Service ) for NHS analysts.	"
I notice some statistics are less easy to interpret than they used to be, e.g Waiting Times. Simple stats showing change over time and even expressed as a graph are most useful to me.	ISD analysts need to consider best ways of presenting information for ease of understanding by wide range of customers including non-experts. Where there are discontinuities in data series then ISD analysts should explain clearly when there are comparability issues over time	"
Customer Newsletter		Bill Dunn 0131 275 6234
I would like to see a bit more explanation/definition included with new releases	All listed releases have hyperlink to full information in the relevant section of the ISD or associated website.
Reducing Health Inequalities	Will ensure any future references to inequalities are included in a newsletter. Much of the most recent information will be available via ScotPHO – a joint initiative between ISD and Health Scotland. http://www.scotpho.org.uk/home/Comparativehealth/health_inequalities/health_inequalities_intro.asp
I would like to receive the Customer update but have not been offered the chance to receive it.	All who completed the ISD survey received a summary of the results in addition to advice on how to be added to the Newsletter mailing list  ( there is an opportunity to register via a link on the ISD website homepage ). http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/new-releases-no-scroll.jsp?pContentID=4335&p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show&	Complete
General - 'ISD could do more of...'
It would be good to get as much information as possible at CHP level	Building a portfolio of CHP information, in alignment with CHP priorities, is the job of ISD's CHP co-ordinator. ISD is linking with CHPs of S.W. Glasgow, Renfrewshire and West Lothian to continue to expand this information in alignment with customer needs to build the collection via the CHPportal. See also http://www.scotpho.org.uk/home/Comparativehealth/Profiles/profiles2008/profiles2008.asp	Stephen Pavis 0131 275 6670 Diane Stockton 0131 275 6817
Make progress toward more real-time/ more up to date information	SPARRA  (Scottish Patients At Risk of Readmission and Admission) is an example of where ISD has been able to compress timescales to get  more up to date info on which to form predictions, and NAVIGATOR, as part of SHIS, will also make figures from NHSS datamarts more quickly accessible by authorised individuals.  System Watch  http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/2498.html  ,also endeavours to use real time information to monitor and predict pressure in NHSS acute sector.	Mike Muirhead 0131 275 6614
Make more usage of CHI and existing linkage opportunities	NAVIGATOR is being developed to exploit the opportunities afforded by the new datamarts- this will be rolled out across HBs in 08/09
More Mental Health analyses	Customers to be referred to mental health information currently available through ScotPHO: http://www.scotpho.org.uk/home/Healthwell-beinganddisease/MentalHealth/mental_keypoints.asp	Diane Stockton 0131 275 6817 (ScotPHO) Lorna Jackson 0131 275 6419
Increased focus on primary care – especially non- GP info	New data development areas on AHP and nurses are in progress which will give wider info on non-GP primary care	Lee Davies 0131 275 6193
Analysts to share their knowledge and skills more widely with colleagues in the service – to train and educate both on statistical methods and interpretation and assist with awareness of what statistics are available.	ISD is moving towards a more partnership based organisation, with a knowledge sharing bias. ISD will visit HBs by invitation to work alongside their health intelligence experts to share expertise. Customers can call our Customer Support Desk on 0131 275 7777. See also methodology page on ScotPHO http://www.scotpho.org.uk/home/resources/methodology/method_intro.asp	Customer Support Desk  0131 275 7777
To verify consistency and quality of activity data collection – too many variances exist between Health Boards	A QA group exists to assess and report on standard data collection activities in Health Boards. Further work will be carried out on metadata to verify comparability and adherence to the National Statistics Bill standards	Mary Sweetland 0131 275 6832