The Ivfworld.com Success Series
9 May 2006 - Number One
The UK’s Leading Fertility Clinics:
The Success Factor
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The Ivfworld.com Success Series explores the factors that make a fertility clinic a genuine winner in the eyes of patients, which are not always those that are most obvious, and looks at the IVF clinics that are leading the way. In today's analysis of the latest Ivfworld.com survey, we take a look at some of the winning teams including the Leeds General Infirmary, the Regional Fertility Clinic and BMI The Chaucer Hospital.
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The key to a successful fertility clinic cannot be truly determined by live birth rates alone, as the current statistics available do not take into account a number of the key variables, such as hormone levels at the start of treatment, and are too out-of-date to have a real bearing on what is taking place right now. Attaching questionable statistics to a fertility clinic may be a tabloid headline grabber, but it can give the patient a misleading impression of what really matters and which clinics are really leading the way in this field.
If one scrapes below the surface and takes a look at what matters to the patient, then one begins to understand what truly makes a successful fertility clinic. Ultimately, what patients want is to go home with a baby, but fertility treatment cannot guarantee this will be the outcome. What clinics can guarantee is the way in which they treat patients throughout the process, which makes an immeasurable difference to their experience. The truth is that the experience a patient has at a fertility clinic has a direct impact on how they feel overall. Their experience can be equally or even more stressful than the surgical procedures, and given that stress is said to have an impact on whether or not a patient falls pregnant, this is a crucial factor.
Ivfworld.com’s latest survey of UK fertility clinics (March 2006) explores what patients feel is important in order for them to have a good experience at a fertility clinic. This includes whether or not the clinic staff were sensitive to their needs during treatment. For example, whether they were able to see the same doctor all the way through their treatment, what the nurses were like, the phone manner and behaviour of the receptionists, whether the staff who scanned them explained what was happening as they went along, all the way through to questions about what the aftercare was like.
Ivfworld.com’s survey suggests that the leading fertility clinics did not achieve success as a result of one member of staff alone, for example a brilliant doctor, but rather as the manifestation of the whole team including everyone from the chief executive to the medical director, embryologists, nurses, office managers and receptionists. Basically, the team is a vital ingredient.
One factor that appears necessary to create a successful team is good rapport between staff, which helps to promote good communication lines throughout the clinic. If the staff know what is going on, then it is more likely that the patients will be given accurate information. A happy team also tends to lead to a low turnover, which helps to create a stable and friendly atmosphere. Both of the latter make it more likely that staff will be open with patients about procedures, for example explaining exactly what happened to each follicle immediately after the egg collection. If all of these factors are present, then it is more likely that patients will be treated with a personal touch, making them feel empowered rather than a cog in a machine.
The Winning Teams
in the latest Ivfworld.com survey
Regional Fertility Centre *****
Number One in Ivfworld’s March 2006 survey of UK fertility clinics |
The Winning Team
Mr Peter McFaul, Clinical Director
Ms Joanna McManus, Consultant
Deborah Lutton, Head Embryologist
Linda Henderson, Head Nurse
Jayne MacReynolds, Unit Manager
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Excerpt from The Regional Fertility Clinic Report
The Regional Fertility Clinic ranks number one in Ivfworld.com’s March 2006 survey of fertility clinics with a five star rating, scoring 98.4 per cent overall. Mr Peter McFaul, Clinical Director, admits that the facilities are far from modern, but told Ivfworld.com: “We are a stable team that gets on well together and has very little turnover.” A formula that appears to be working in the eyes of patients. The Regional Fertility Centre is run by five consultants and does not have junior staff or research fellows carrying out procedures. On the subject of what age they treat patients up to, Mr McFaul says: “We treat women up to their natural menopause in the case of egg donation”, although the age limit is currently lower for women using their own eggs and some people would like this limit raised.
Patients are satisfied with the information they receive about the costs of their treatment at the Regional Fertility Clinic, according to the Ivfworld.com March 2006 survey. Doctors at the Regional Fertility Clinic are viewed as....
How To Order the Survey Results and Report
To order the survey results and full report on the Regional Fertility Clinic, which gives a breakdown of what patients think of the clinic in many different categories, click here to email REQUEST SURVEY REPORT.
If you are a fertility patient, please email your name and phone number and put Patient/Regional Fertility Clinic in the subject line of the email. If you are a member of staff at a fertility clinic or linked to a fertility clinic in any way, please put Staff/Regional Fertility Clinic in the subject line of the email and give your name, title, phone number, place of work and address. For all other enquiries, please email the press office.
Clarendon Wing, Leed General Infirmary *****
A top twenty UK fertility clinic in Ivfworld’s March 2006 survey
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The Winning Team
Professor Adam Balen, Clinical Director
Mr Anthony Rutherford, Consultant
Dr David Morrell, Consultant Embryologist Jill Bulmer, Senior Nurse
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Excerpt from The Leeds General Infirmary Report
Clinical Director Professor Adam Balen is the driving force behind this clinic. " We do around 1,200 cycles a year so we're a big clinic, but we do our best to maintain a personal touch," he told Ivfworld.com. The aim, he added, is to treat people as individuals and not to exclude people on the grounds of age or poor prognosis. Leeds General Infirmary scored 88.8 per cent overall in Ivfworld.com's survey of patients, which puts it among the leading fertility clinics in the UK. Ivfworld.com's report on the survey results for the Clarendon Wing, Leeds General Infirmary reveals how patients view this clinic on a variety of different levels and provides overall scores in the many categories explored.
How To Order the Survey Results and Report
To order the survey results and full report on the Clarendon Wing, Leeds General Infirmary, click REQUEST SURVEY REPORT
. If you are a fertility patient, please email your name and phone number, putting Clarendon Wing, Leeds General Infirmary in the subject line of the email. If you are a member of staff at a fertility clinic or linked to a fertility clinic in any way, please put Staff/Clarendon Wing, Leeds General Infirmary in the subject line of the email and give your name, title, phone number, place of work and address. For all other enquiries, please email the press office.
BMI The Chaucer Hospital ****
A top twenty UK fertility clinic in Ivfworld’s March 2006 survey
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The Winning Team
Mr Steven Gough, Director
Mr Nagy Raflas, Consultant
Mr Joe Davies, Consultant
Stephen Lynch, Senior Embryologist
Sherry Ebanks, Senior Nurse Manager
Helena Rogers, Clerical Manager
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Excerpt from BMI The Chaucer Hospital Report
Steven Gough, the director of BMI The Chaucer Hospital, believes a successful clinic is “all about employees and employing the right people. If you get really good people and then you focus on training them, valuing them and making sure everyone from the housekeeper to the doctor understands the importance of the team, then you’re on the right path. We work hard to do this." His colleague, consultant Mr Nagy Raflas, agrees that the team is supreme: “We started small as a family unit and are growing. That means we’ll be doing 500 cycles a year – the number’s consistently rising.” Mr Raflas told Ivfworld.com that: “We don’t try to save on staff. The BMI supplies us with what’s needed and I’m quite at liberty to ask for whatever I want in terms of equipment however much it costs.”
Mr Raflas strongly believes: “We should not discriminate against women when it comes to age. Charlie Chaplin fathered a child at eighty and it’s hypocritical to discriminate against a woman who is past her prime.” He thinks the main issues should be: “Can I help this lady to have a child irrespective of her age. As a team we have a cut off point of 50 but that’s more to do with lack of donors than anything else. In principal we have no problem with age. Older women are often very caring mothers who provide better motherhood than some young mothers who many not be as caring.”
Patients give the BMI Chaucer a top score for aftercare, an area
that sadly receives little attention at some clinics. Patients say that some clinics have not yet acquired the art of imparting negative news about treatment in a sympathetic way, regardless of paying attention to how they handle patients after their treatment cycle has ended.
Ivfworld.com’s Survey Report on BMI The Chaucer looks at a host of different areas from the moment a patient walks through the door at the clinic to when their treatment is over. It examines both its strong and weak points which include....
How To Order the Survey Results and Report
To order the survey results and full report on BMI The Chaucer Hospital, please click REQUEST SURVEY REPORT. If you are a fertility patient, please email your name and phone number, putting BMI The Chaucer Hospital in the subject line of the email. If you are a member of staff at a fertility clinic or linked to a fertility clinic in any way, please put Staff/Regional Fertility Clinic in the subject line of the email and give your name, title, phone number, place of work and address. For all other enquiries, please email the press office.
For news about other winning teams in the Ivfworld.com survey of the top fertility clinics, please watch The Ivfworld.com Success Series page!
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