Authors (including presenting author) :
Chan KC, Lau SP, Lau FC
Affiliation :
Occupational Therapy Department, Pok Oi Hospital
Introduction :
Every month, Occupational Therapy Department of Pok Oi Hospital received around 120 new out-patient referrals for appointment booking. At present, patients handed in referrals to counter and had to wait for telephone confirmation of appointment booking for 5 days. Patients always expressed worries while waiting. Moreover, staffs had to prepare for the new case files and present to therapists for triage with reference to patients’ condition. They had to call back patients for appointment which increased their workload and made them frustrated especially when they failed to reach the patients and needed to make repeated calls.
Objectives :
To refine the current workflow with aims to alleviate patients’ worries, reduce staffs' workload and improve the efficiency of appointment booking system.
Methodology :
The refined workflow was launched since 05.08.19. Under the refined workflow, a “Reference List” was made by therapist to guide staffs in appointment booking based on patients’ specialty and condition. Staffs could offer appointment to patients immediately after cross-matching “Referral Services” on patients’ referrals with the “Reference List”.
Result & Outcome :
The refined workflow greatly addressed the concerns of patients and staffs which were reflected by the percentage of new referrals with immediate appointment schedule offered and the score of the staffs' satisfaction survey. For patients, it alleviated their worries on the uncertainty about their appointment schedule as they could receive their appointment booking immediately after handed in referrals. The average waiting time to receive the first appointment booking was markedly reduced from 5 days to 5 minutes. Since the launch of refined workflow, around 1,800 new out-patient referrals were received and over 90% of them could be offered with appointment schedule immediately. For staffs, it reduced their heavy workload in anticipated procedures to contact patients via telephone. They were satisfied with the arrangement on refined workflow with the mean satisfaction score increased from 5/10 to 8.5/10. As a matter of fact, the refined workflow improved the efficiency of appointment booking system by simplifying the workflow from 6 steps to 4 steps and reducing the time required for staffs to complete the entire appointment booking workflow from 15 minutes to 5 minutes. In conclusion, the refined workflow was definitely a “win-win” workflow. Both patients and staffs were happy and satisfied with the refined workflow. Not only did it alleviate patients’ worries and reduce staffs' workload, but also improved the efficiency of appointment booking. In this connection, the refined workflow had been incorporated into our routine practice.
