Authors (including presenting author) :
Ng SK(1), LAI WY(3), LI LK(2), SO MH(1), TONG YK(3), Cheung MC(3), Wu ASH(1), Yau CM(1), Young MW(1), Lui WK(4), Chu WS(5), Law SL(4), Ma PK(1), Lai SY(3), Ng YB(2), Tsang WY(2)
Affiliation :
(1) Department of Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, United Christian Hospital (2) Department of Medicine & Geriatrics, United Christian Hospital (3) Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, United Christian Hospital (4) Nursing Service Department, United Christian Hospital (5) Department of Pharmacy, United Christian Hospital
Introduction :
Timely discharge of patients from hospital is a hung problem in the worldwide. There will be increased the risk of hospital acquire infection, emotional or physical dependency, hospital costs, and restricts the availability of inpatient bed for new patients. The continuous quality improvement program, Fast Tack Medication, was to shorten the discharge processing time and maintained safety discharge medication.
Objectives :
(1) Reduce the round-trip between pharmacy and ward
(2) Decrease the lift usage
(3) Increase the satisfaction of discharge process
Methodology :
An “pre-test” and “post-test” design will be used to measure the effectiveness of the program. Participates will be (1) patient who discharge from hospital and (2) his/her caregiver. The outcomes measure (1)Time from eligible for discharge to actual discharge from hospital (2) Patient satisfaction and (3) Staff satisfaction. This program consist of three phases: (1) submit the medication sheet by facsimile machine early (2) Develop an electronic based program with IT department and (3) Pilot run this program.
Result & Outcome :
The pre-test in phase one was done in Medicine & Geriatrics, Obstetrics & Gynaecology and Paediatric wards. The mean of time from doctor order “Discharge” to medication sheet ready ranged from 51.42 mins to 211.42 mins. The mean of time from medication sheet ready to patient back to ward ranged from 82.85 mins to 312.5 mins. The mean of time from patient ready for discharge to patient leave ward was 21.18 mins. The total time for discharge process ranged from 2.5 hours to 9 hours. In conclusion, delays in hospital discharges can increase the financial burden on both the patient and hospital, an electronic based program will help to smooth the discharge process effectively without degraded the discharge medication safety. The evidence will be investigated in the future.
