Inpatient care relies upon the assumption that patients are able to expressneeds and concerns to healthcare professionals. Therefore, call bells aredescribed as “the patient's lifeline”. Failures of this system can result incommunication breakdown, exposing patients to otherwise preventableharm. Our study aimed to assess call bell accessibility within St Peter'sHospital, collating patient opinions and evidence of current practice.40 patients on 10 randomly selected wards were surveyed to assess understanding, inpatient experience and suggested improvements. Call belllocation was audited for all beds on 6 randomly selected wards over 24hours, with photographic evidence of misplacement.
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