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United Kingdom - 04/09/09 Pennine MSK Partnership Team Proves Its Commitment to Customer Focused Services with Customer Service Excellence Award In March 2009 Pennine MSK Partnership team achieved Customer Service Excellence (CSE) by SGS United Kingdom Ltd. Commissioned by Oldham Primary Care Trust the flagship NHS service provides specialist rheumatology, orthopaedics and chronic pain-relief services to the people of Oldham. High standards of customer service are essential. “Our customer base ranges from the patients themselves through to our partners and staff,” says Anne Browne, PMSKP Partner and Nurse Consultant, Rheumatology. “Supporting our patients we have 21 seconded and contracted specialists such as podiatrists, psychiatrists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists – all working across the Oldham area.” The team has always maintained customer service initiatives, for example patient and GP satisfaction surveys, participation groups, weekend and evening opening, a staff suggestion scheme, complaints audits and a nurse helpline. But the CSE standard offered a way to supply objective assessments of performance, focus on areas for improvement and pinpoint where to make organisational changes. Following a one-day pre-assessment the PMSKP team formed an advisory group of staff from across the organisation to focus on areas of best practice and identify potential improvements based on CSE criteria. The CSE assessor guided PMSKP through the preparation process and was always available to answer any queries. “After our meetings with the assessor we were able to keep everyone informed of our progress towards CSE, and why this is central to our vision of providing a flagship service.” The CSE assessment in March 2009, conducted by SGS, involved an independent review of PMSKP’s application and supporting documentation, together with on-site interviews with patients, staff and stakeholders. “PMSKP were clearly committed to the principles of CSE and the on-site assessment demonstrated this in practice,” says Bob Mandy, SGS Senior Project Manager. “All patients interviewed were happy with all aspects of the service provided. The overwhelming opinion was that the service was vastly superior to what they had experienced in the past. All staff interviewed or observed were very patient focused and clearly enjoyed their work.” With CSE in place, PMSKP has made a number of improvements to customer service, including external customer care training for staff; a more engaging website and newsletters for staff; more and higher-quality information for patients; encouraging more patient feedback through satisfaction surveys; and appointing a Business Operations Manager who subsequently manages these changes. “Now we want to build on our experience and go on increasing our responsiveness to our customers’ needs and constantly improving our customer service,” adds Anne Browne. “It was clear that PMSKP has clear plans to carry on improving the service they are offering to patients,” adds Bob Mandy. ‘The CSE process has provided us with a useful framework on which to set and sustain our standards by and compliments the national agenda of driving the delivery of health services based on quality’ commented Jamilla Rashid, Quality & Business Operation Manager. ‘It will further give us structure in the future to maintain the high quality patient-focussed services that we deliver’. SGS United Kingdom Ltd SGS House 217-221 London Road Camberley GU15 3EY 01276 697999 01276 697696 Email SGS UK SGS United Kingdom The SGS Group is the global leader and innovator in inspection, verification, testing and certification services. Founded in 1878, SGS is recognized as the global benchmark in quality and integrity. With more than 55,000 employees, SGS operates a network of over 1,000 offices and laboratories around the world. |
