Authors (including presenting author) :
Cheung SC, To CN, Lam PYW, Wong MC
Affiliation :
Department of Clinical Oncology, Tuen Mun Hospital, New Territories West Cluster, HKSAR
Introduction :
In clinical setting, various investigations including blood, urine or sputum collection would be ordered by doctor during doctor round. The requests were made in the Clinical Management System (CMS) by doctors after documentation in the integrated progress sheet in usual practice and the time needed for making a request varies.
In order to facilitate effective patient care, an enhancement project was implemented. Nurse would assist doctor to make the request in CMS and print out the request form for further handling.
Objectives :
1. To enhance the working efficiency by making designated investigations request in Clinical Management System (CMS) by nurses.
2. To act as a pilot study to determine the feasibility to further including majority of common investigation request for oncology patient in the future.
Methodology :
1. A task group including supervisors, frontline nurses and doctors was formed in August, 2019 to discuss the details of the enhancement project.
2. A list of designated investigation request was included in this project, as the project was a pilot study, only a limited request was included such as CBC with d/c; LFT; RFT; Sputum for culture; urine for culture, etc.
3. Doctor would affix a “Patient Investigation Request Sticker” in patient integrated progress sheet with signature as formal documentation of the investigation request.
4. Nurse would make the request in CMS and print out the request form for further handling.
5. Training sessions were provided for all qualified nurses in from late-October to early-November, 2019
6. The enhancement project was initiated on Mid November and evaluation was done on December, 2019.
Result & Outcome :
1. A 21% of total number of investigation requests were entered by nurses. Average time consumed by nurse is 1.5 minutes per entry.
2. Percentage of assistance by nurse were agreed to be acceptable by doctors.
3. Nurses welcomed the workflow as the patient care efficiency was enhanced. Nurse do not have to wait doctor to make the and print out the request form.
4. The result of the enhancement project acted as a pioneer to guide further enhancement to include majority of common investigation request for oncology patient.
