NHS

Following the recent posting on the NHS / patient interface, here is another example of the way in which the NHS is simply not people centric; My wife recently gave birth to our baby girl and when it came to NHS staff at the hospital, we had a great deal of difficulty in determining who was who. Making distinctions between staff grades and responsibilities is virtually impossible. We couldn’t figure out who was in charge. I was close at one point to following the advice of the cleaning lady who spoke with an authority way above her station!

There are some well cited cases of staff making patient ID blunders (here’s a recent example in the Times, but very little discussion about hospital visitors misidentifying staff. People at hospitals, whether they are patients or visitors, are often stressed, uncomfortable and intimidated. They need the reassurance of knowing who is who so that they can turn to the right person for their needs. When asking a question of staff, the level of confidence you have in the reply depends largely on where they sit in the hierarchy.

The primary causes of the confusion are:

• Different coloured uniforms that may designate role within the NHS but are bewildering to the public.
• Job titles that really give no indication of role or rank unless you happen to have a good knowledge of the medical profession.
• Similar uniforms worn by health professionals and non-professionals alike.

Against the current economic backdrop, the Government is likely to scale back public spending plans for the NHS. Nonetheless, addressing the issues above would not take a huge investment and the return would be substantial - a good user experience would help to offset the negative public perception of the NHS. As I mentioned in the previous NHS post, the user experience problems at the NHS won’t be resolved overnight, but at least recognising the mistakes would be a step in the right direction.

Always keen on a little research I decided to substantiate my claims by asking five other bleary eyed new Dads. Lo and behold I was right - nobody has a clue who is who. Okay I accept that my sample would not stand up to the rigours of statistical significance, but surely five out of five is a good indicator.

A friend suggested they should adopt the stripes system used by the military. Not a bad idea I thought, until you see a name badge on a man approaching with the proctology equipment: Rear Admiral.