Measures What Matters

At KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH), understanding our patients’ experiences is not an afterthought – it is a core part of how we deliver and continuously improve care for women, children and families.
 

How We Measure What Matters

KKH uses internationally validated Patient Reported Experience Measures (PREMs) surveys to capture meaningful, reliable insights across every stage of a patient's journey — from admission and treatment to communication, discharge planning and the overall care experience. Survey questions are drawn from globally recognised frameworks and are designed to surface the moments that matter most to patients and families:

Examples of survey questions:

• How often did nurses explain things in a way you could understand?
• How often did the hospital staff do everything they could to help your child with his/her pain?
• Did you get information about what symptoms or health problems to look out for after you left the hospital?

To ensure objectivity and statistical rigour, patients and caregivers are sampled randomly by KKH's Office of Patient Experience, providing a representative picture of care quality across our services
 

The CY2025 PREMs results highlight the commitment of our teams to providing compassionate, person-centred care. Strong communication scores were reported across all professional groups, with 85.8% of patients indicating that Allied Health professionals always communicated well, alongside 83.4% for doctors and 81.7% for nurses. Together, these findings reflect a consistent patient experience built on clear and respectful interactions. Reinforcing this, 77.0% of patients said they would definitely recommend KKH to family and friends, a strong signal of the trust patients and families place in us.
 

From Feedback to Meaningful Improvement

Feedback is only valuable when it drives action. At KKH, real-time patient experience dashboards are reviewed regularly by clinical and operational teams to identify trends, recognise strengths and prioritise areas for improvement. Hospital leaders also conduct regular rounding with patients and staff, ensuring that improvement efforts stay grounded in lived experience rather than data alone.
 

Embedding Patients’ Voices in what we do

At KKH, patient and caregiver feedback does not just inform our care — it shapes it. Here are some examples of how listening to the people we serve led to meaningful improvements.

Building Confidence, Together: An Appendicitis Education Resource

When a child is diagnosed with appendicitis, the news can be overwhelming. Caregivers often leave with a lot of information to absorb, and it can be hard to feel prepared for what comes next at home.

To better understand what families needed, the team spoke with caregivers who had been through the experience firsthand. Their insights shaped a short educational video — covering what appendicitis is, treatment options, possible complications, and what to expect after surgery. The video was reviewed and refined by caregivers before it was made available to families upon diagnosis.

The difference was clear. Caregiver knowledge scores increased by 42%, and confidence scores improved from 0.7 to 0.84 out of a maximum score of 1. Follow-up calls one to two weeks after discharge indicated that all caregivers were coping well.
 

Caring for the Whole Person: Improving Miscarriage Care

Losing a pregnancy is a deeply personal and painful experience. Patients at KKH's Urgent Obstetrics and Gynaecology Centre told us they needed more than clinical care — they needed to feel heard, supported, and involved in decisions about their care.

Their feedback led to real changes: staff were trained in compassionate communication, quiet spaces were created for counselling and grieving, and care processes were made more consistent. The proportion of patients who would recommend the service rose from 60.2% to 67.0% — but more importantly, patients described feeling cared for and supported during one of the most difficult moments of their lives.
 

Value-Based Care Journey

We recognise that high-quality healthcare is about more than clinical outcomes—it is also about understanding what matters most to patients and families. As part of our value-based care journey, KKH uses patient experience measures to drive meaningful improvements. One such project aimed to increase the proportion of parents who reported receiving clear, understandable post-discharge return-to-activity guidance for children with Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP). Starting from a baseline of 25%, the team set a target of 37.5% within 12 months. Through enhanced educational materials and standardised discharge communication, the team achieved a sustained improvement of 80% - more than doubling the target and significantly improving the caregiver experience.

This is what patient experience measurement looks like in practice at KKH: not a survey exercise, but a continuous commitment to listening, learning and delivering better care.