Authors (including presenting author) :
Chan TS(1), Cheng CW(1), TONG WC (2), Lee MY (2), WONG KS (2), TAM YK(3), MA HF (3), LAU LS (3), YIU LP (4), WAN YT (4), LO WY (4)
Affiliation :
(1)Cluster Transport Team,(2)North District Hospital,(3)Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, (4)Prince of Wales Hospital
Introduction :
On average, about 6% of discharged patients in New Territories East Cluster (NTEC) hospitals are living in villages.Late discharge of patients’ homes beyond 19:00 by Non-emergency Ambulance Transfer Service (NEATS) may post higher risk to safety of patients as well as staff when the patients were transferred back to patients’ village homes without light along the road.
On the other hand, NEATS fleet resources are available from 11:00 to 13:00 for patient discharge and transfer. In order to fully utilize the fleet resources and facilitate early patient discharge from hospital, working groups consisted of Cluster NEATS team, clinical users, Portering department had been formed in NTEC hospitals.
Objectives :
To facilitate early discharge of patients from hospitals in NTEC
Methodology :
1) 3 working groups consisted of Cluster NEATS team, clinical users and Portering department had been formed in hospitals, namely Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital (AHNH), North District Hospital (NDH)and Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH) in NTEC.
2) Workload distribution in NEATS resources had been reviewed.
3) Workflow of patient discharge from hospital to patient’s residence had been reviewed.
Result & Outcome :
1) Designated NEATS vehicle with fixed departure times before 13:00 and fixed destination for patient discharge was introduced in all acute hospitals in NTEC.
2) Clinical users could arrange early patient discharge to match the departure time of NEATS vehicle which could decrease crowdedness in wards, increase bed turnover and achieve full utilization of beds.
3) After implementation of project, despite that the total number of discharged/ transferred cases in all acute hospitals had increased by 9.5% from 12,462 in 2018 to 13,647 in 2019, it was noted that the patients had been discharged with earlier times with significant percentage.
4) The total number of discharged cases from AHNH, NDH and PWH before 13:00 was increased by 27% from 2,112 to 2,684 when compared with the same period last year, which reflected that NEATS fleet resources was utilized more efficiently.
5) The total number of late discharged home patient, i.e. after 19:00 was decreased by 49%from 1,286 to 650.
6) Though the residence location of discharged patients cannot be controlled, the prompt patient discharge arrangement could reduce the safety risk of patients and staff when transferring back to patients’ villages without light.
