Listening, learning and improving: how Hills Family General Practice puts patient feedback into practice

For Hills Family General Practice, understanding patient experience is an important part of delivering safe, patient-centred care and strengthening quality over time. 

Established in Castle Hill, NSW, in 2001 by Dr Wally Jammal and Practice Manager Madeline Jammal, Hills Family General Practice has grown into a multidisciplinary practice with a strong focus on continually improving care and the patient experience. 

“Patients are the cornerstone of our practice, and we centre everything we do around them,” Madeline said. 

“To be truly patient-centred, we need to ask patients what matters most to them.” 

Hills Family General Practice uses CFEP Surveys’ Practice Accreditation Survey alongside Active Insights to gather structured and ongoing patient feedback. These different perspectives help the team understand what patients value and inform practical improvements across the practice. 

 

The challenge: understanding the complete patient experience 

Patient experience extends across every interaction with a practice, from making an appointment and waiting to see a clinician through to communication, results and follow-up care. 

Clinical, operational and business information provides Hills Family General Practice with valuable insight into its patients and performance. Patient feedback adds something different: an understanding of how care and services are experienced from the patient’s perspective. 

“What this data cannot always show is the emotional connection between patients and the practice,” Madeline said. 

For Madeline, looking at Hills Family General Practice through the patient’s eyes can highlight issues the team may not otherwise recognise. Feedback also provides context around changes in its Net Promoter Score (NPS), helping the team explore what may be influencing patient experience. 

 

The approach: turning feedback into practical action 

At Hills Family General Practice, patient feedback can lead to anything from a simple adjustment to a broader review of clinical or operational processes. 

When patients asked for clearer information about appointment waiting times, Hills Family General Practice introduced a real-time waiting-room display showing how many patients were waiting for each doctor or nurse. 

Further feedback identified a privacy concern about displaying patients’ first names. The display was changed to show initials, maintaining the benefits of clearer waiting-time communication while improving patient comfort.

 

Patient feedback also prompted a review of SMS communication about abnormal pathology results. Patients wanted clearer guidance about what action they needed to take and how quickly. Doctors reviewed the wording and introduced more specific instructions about the action and timeframe required, while urgent results continue through a separate process. 

Feedback has also informed broader change management. As Hills Family General Practice has transitioned towards electronic prescriptions, patient responses have helped the team identify where additional communication, education or support may be valuable. 

Not every piece of feedback requires a change in direction. Sometimes it provides useful insight into where patients may need additional support as changes are introduced. 

 

Creating a continuous improvement cycle 

Hills Family General Practice uses the Practice Accreditation Survey and Active Insights in complementary ways to gather patient insights over time. 

The Practice Accreditation Survey, completed every three years, helps Hills Family General Practice measure progress over time. Comparing results with previous surveys helps identify trends, assess whether improvements have been sustained and highlight areas requiring further attention. 

Active Insights provides ongoing digital feedback between survey cycles. At the end of each month, Madeline reviews NPS results and patient comments, prepares a summary for the team and highlights positive feedback, concerns and recurring themes. 

Where feedback identifies an opportunity for improvement, it can be discussed with the owners or raised at a clinical meeting, connecting patient experience with everyday decision-making and quality improvement activities. 

Positive feedback is equally valuable. Compliments are shared with doctors, nurses and reception staff, recognising their contribution, supporting morale and reinforcing the compassion and behaviours patients value. 

“I view feedback as a gift because it helps us identify issues before they affect more patients,” Madeline said. 

 

The outcome: keeping patients at the centre of improvement 

For Hills Family General Practice, patient feedback creates a practical connection between experience and improvement. 

By regularly reviewing and discussing feedback, the team can recognise what is working well, respond to concerns and consider the patient experience alongside other information used to understand practice performance. 

For Madeline, this is also why patient feedback has value beyond accreditation. 

“Patient feedback should be viewed as more than an accreditation requirement,” she said. 

Hills Family General Practice’s experience shows that embedding patient feedback into continuous improvement does not need to mean creating complex new processes. 

For other general practices, the experience offers a clear lesson: patient feedback is most valuable when it becomes part of an ongoing cycle of listening, interpretation, action and review. 

 

Thank you to Madeline Jammal and the team at Hills Family General Practice for sharing their experiences and insights with CFEP Surveys. Learn more about Hills Family General Practice: hillsfamilygeneralpractice.com