Authors (including presenting author) :
Wong WHR (1), Fok KME (1), Choi MPP (1), Mak HKC (1)(2)
Affiliation :
(1) Department of Neurosurgery, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, (2) Information Technology Department, Kowloon Central Cluster
Introduction :
With information delivery becomes so important in healthcare services for provision of guidelines, policies updates and the ever-changing clinical practices, there are needs to connect clinical staff without geographical limitations and make information accessible anytime and anywhere through digital technologies. The E-Platform designed is aiming to become an all-in-one solution for clinical information services, improve accessibility of information, hence promote clinical safety and evidence-based practices.
Objectives :
To improve delivery of information & reduce searching time of digital information through launching of Clinical E-Platform in neurosurgical wards
Methodology :
Information delivery is an important element in healthcare services for provision of guidelines, policies updates and the ever-changing clinical practices. Currently, digital information in hospital intranets is scattered across different webpages. Clinical staff need to spend a relatively long searching time to locate specific documents. The Clinical E-Platform is therefore designed, with a dedicated module to centralise unit-specific documents.
The Clinical E-Platform currently composed of 4 modules around clinical services, including: Clinical Updates, Department documents, Newcomers/ Preceptorship program & Carer/Patient Education. The E-Platform was designed to be able to access through various devices including CMS computers, iPads, IPMOE tablets and smartphones through ‘HA Chat’.
'Clinical Updates' is one of the main features of the E-Platform which features a 'Newsfeed' like dashboard which provides frontline staff the latest information in chronological orders. Updated information will be received by staff via ‘HA Chat’ instantaneously on smartphones.
'Department documents' is a customisable module for unit or specialty to centralise commonly-used documents. Digital information scattered across different intranet webpages can be re-directed into the module for easy access.
Value stream mapping was conducted to analyse the process involved in future state versus the current state with the purpose to reduce non-value added processes. 20 frontline colleagues were involved to compare the use the E-Platform with current methods.
Result & Outcome :
The E-platform streamlined 3 wasteful processes in the current state value stream map. It decreased time needed for locating specific documents from an average of 5 mins to 1 min 20 secs, in which the total lead time was reduced by 73.3%.
The E-Platform can reduce time needed for locating documents, provides a customisable platform for specialty use, clinical updates and unit-specific documents. It also facilitates staff trainings by incorporating the preceptorship module, promote clinical safety and evidence-based practices by improving accessibility of information and potentially increase academic involvement of frontline staff in the future.
