New Children's Hospital explores children's experiences of inpatient care – The VoiCEs project involves four European children's hospitals

Led by the Italian Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, the VoiCEs project is developing an electronic patient feedback questionnaire for children, as well as a data platform. These can be used to measure and compare the inpatient care experiences of children and adolescents. Based on the results, the hospital experience can be made more positive.

“Children may already provide feedback through the HUS feedback system, but feedback from children has not been gathered systematically. We hope to provide our child patients a positive hospital experience in addition to the high-quality care”, says Katariina Gehrmann, Head of Digital and Innovation Services in New Children’s Hospital.

Children have the right to be heard

A child's age and development level influence their experience of inpatient care. The VoiCEs project’s target group is children and adolescents aged 0 to 17. The questionnaire will be adapted for different age groups. For example, parents will fill in the questionnaire for children who cannot yet read.

A child’s right to express their opinion in matters concerning them is stated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, for example.

“A hospital stay always removes a child from their normal environment. Children in hospital must have the right to have their parents present as well as to be informed in a manner appropriate to their age and level of understanding. The hospital environment should also be suitable for children and the staff must be specialized in pediatric care. In this research project, we examine how well the children's right to receive good care is implemented in our hospital from the children's point of view”, explains Customer Services Manager Tuula Kortekangas.

Co-operation benefits many European children's hospitals

The hospitals participating in the project in addition to HUS New Children’s Hospital are Children’s University Hospital in Latvia, Meyer Children’s Hospital in Italy, and Erasmus MC Sophia Children’s Hospital in the Netherlands. Several experts from various fields from the hospitals participate in the development of the feedback questionnaire.

The professionals participating in the project will be able to evaluate the strengths of each hospital, identify areas of development, and learn from one another. The aim is to distribute the feedback questionnaire to the hospitals of the European Children’s Hospitals Organisation (ECHO) for use as a development tool.

The project is implemented in co-operation with the European Commission.

VoiCEs project's website.