Picker Institute Europe

Picker Institute Europe is an international charity dedicated to ensuring the highest quality health and social care for all. Its work is underpinned by a commitment to the principles of person centred care. Its core aims are to:

• influence policy and practice so that health and social care systems are always centred on people’s needs and preferences;
• inspire the delivery of the highest quality care, developing tools and services which enable all experiences to be better understood; and
• empower those working in health and social care to improve experiences by effectively measuring, and acting upon, people’s feedback.

The Picker Institute is a leading authority on understanding and measuring people’s experiences of health and social care, using the results to improve quality in the areas that matter most to patients. It has been internationally recognised for its research in the field of person centred care and for developing tools to better understand the experiences of different care groups.^[1]

Its service user and staff experience programmes are used internationally, by both commissioners and providers of care, to measure and improve people’s experiences. Within the NHS the organisation acts as the coordination centre for the NHS patient and staff survey programmes on behalf of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and NHS England respectively.^[2]

History and Impact

Jean and Harvey Picker established the Picker Institute in 1986, during Jean’s treatment for a terminal condition. They saw the American healthcare system was technologically and scientifically outstanding, but they believed that it was not adequately sensitive to the concerns and personal needs of patients and this affected the quality of care they received.

Harvey and Jean first established the Picker Institute in the United States; an organisation dedicated to researching how healthcare organisations could improve the experience of patients, whilst meeting their clinical needs.

To be truly effective, they understood that health care must be delivered in a way that:

• Is sensitive to patients’ concerns and comfort
• Is responsive to their personal values and preferences
• Actively involves patients, their family members and carers in shared decision making

The work of the Picker Institute proved so impactful in the USA that in 2000 Picker Institute Europe was established to continue the mission worldwide. The Picker Institute is widely credited with originating the term ‘person centred care’. Its research, survey tools and services have become standard facilitators of care quality worldwide.^[3]

Key Milestones

• 1986 - Picker Institute Inc., a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to developing and promoting a patient centred approach to healthcare was established
• 1987 - Developed the Principles of Patient Centred Care which became an internationally renowned framework supporting the delivery of high quality person centred care
• 2000 - Picker Institute Europe was formally created and based in the UK. Picker Institut Deutschland was established as a central European hub and based in Hamburg, Germany.
• 2002-2005 - In the USA, the Picker Institute philosophy was used to develop the HCAHPS quality instrument
• 2002 - Named as the English regulator's partner of choice to run the NHS National Survey Programme
• 2002 - Designed and established the first ever English NHS national survey programme for patient experience
• 2002 - Established an improvement service, dedicated to supporting organisations to act on their user experience data to improve care quality
• 2003 - Developed and co-ordinated the first ever survey of service user experience of mental health services in England
• 2003 - Published, and won, The Baxter Award for European Patient of the Future - a major study carried out in eight different European countries to look at health policy dilemas through the eyes of the patient
• 2004 - Picker Institut Deutschland develops the first Clinic Guide - the first hospital benchmarking project of its kind in Germany
• 2005-2006 - Identified patient expectations of intensive care doctors, which were used in CoBaTrICE; a pan-European project which aims to harmonise standards of specialist training in intensive care medicine in the European Union
• 2007-2008 - Developed the Invest in Engagement programme
• 2011 - Became the English Department of Health's partner of choice to run the NHS National Staff Survey, the largest single workforce survey in Europe
• 2011 - Won an NHS Department of Health award for the development of a PREM for children and young people. In 2012 this was taken to the international stage with uptake in the USA and Australia
• 2013 - Launched the Individual Clinician Feedback programme in collaboration with University Hospitals South Manchester and The Society of Cardio Thoracic Surgeons. Individual clinician feedback of their patient's experience are published alongside their clinical outcomes for the first time
• 2013 - Picker Institut Deutschland publish the Picker Report 2013, featuring statistics and analyses on the most important factors for a good patient and staff experience across Germany
• 2013 - Picker Institut Deutschland host the first Picker Forum; an annual best practice event for healthcare professionals dealing with hospital and quality management in Germany
• 2014 - Launched an international collaborative with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, bringing the Always Events improvement programme to European health and social care jurisdictions
• 2014 - Picker Institut Deutschland launch the first Picker Award for Maternity Clinics, awarded to the three most "parent-friendly" clinics in Germany

^[4]

References

External links

• Picker Institute Europe