Authors (including presenting author) :
Leung CK(1), Yung PH(1)
Affiliation :
(1)Geriatric Medical Unit, Grantham Hospital
Introduction :
An inefficient and lengthy follow-up process would often be our missing puzzle for better quality of patient care. In our unit, ward follow-up (WFU) appointments are typically arranged 1-2 weeks after patient discharge. The WFU services usually include blood test to monitor the effectiveness of the treatment, or test results and treatment plan discussion. The most common patient complaints are the long waiting time and complicated steps. Both of these directly affect patient and accompanier satisfaction, and are indicators of performance in outpatient setting. Patient satisfaction reduces significantly as the process time and complexity increase. In this project, we only focus on WFU with blood test monitoring since most complaints were collected from patients who required blood drawn during their visit.
Objectives :
To increase patient and carer satisfaction by a) reducing average WFU process time; b) streamlining WFU process
Methodology :
The Six Sigma DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) methodology was adopted for reducing the average process time and process complexity.
Result & Outcome :
After project implementation, the process has been simplified from a 5-stops visit to 2-stops visit. Walking step was dramatically decreased from 300 to 120. Patients do not need to go to several places during the WFU visit. The average WFU process time has reduced from 192.17 min to 171.27 min with designated resting area for patient and carer during blood test waiting process. Both patients and staff are satisfied with the new arrangememt.
