Authors (including presenting author) :
Chan SYJ(1), Chung MHM(1), Yeung KCA(1)
Affiliation :
(1)Physiotherapy Department, Prince of Wales Hospital
Introduction :
Walking aids were stored in the physiotherapy out-patient for loaning to patients to facilitate safe and timely discharge. Patients who were unable to purchase suitable walking aids upon discharge were offered to reduce fall risk and enable ambulation. Yet, the walking aid storage fluctuated with growing demands. There were times of nearly running out walking aids that required spending extra time for urgent attention and procedure for replacement. On the other hand, over-stocking of walking aids sometimes happened which obstructed other clinical areas.
Objectives :
1)To lean the walking aid ordering and storage whilst maintaining sufficient liquidity for loaning service; 2)To increase the efficiency of returned walking aid replenishment; 3)To ensure that the walking aid storage does not obstruct other clinical areas
Methodology :
The voice of stakeholders including patients, clerks who were responsible to order walking aids, and frontline staff were collected and summarised in the “Critical-to-Quality” tree diagram. The whole process of walking aid loaning service, including ordering stock, loaning, returning, cleansing and transfer to storage was outlined using the value stream mapping. The root cause of problem was analysed using the cost-and-effect diagram, and was identified to be the erratic storage of walking aids, inducing ambiguous threshold for ordering stock. Thus, stock-taking of walking aids in different storage areas and loaning transactions were evaluated. With improved measures, the storage of same type of walking aid was re-aligned. The minimum stock before ordering was re-determined based on past statistics. After process value analysis, the non-value-added processes were eliminated. The flow of replenishing the returned walking aids was then facilitated with education to the involving staff.
Result & Outcome :
The results were: 1)Met the goal of 5 minutes set as the ideal waiting time for borrowing walking aid at our department; 2)Reduced the processing time needed for returned walking aid to be ready for loaning again; 3)Achieved zero incident of walking aid being stored outside the confined area and obstructed the clinical areas for treatment. Outcomes were taken pre- and post-implemention from April to September 2019 and compared using independent t-tests. With the most ideal waiting time for borrowing walking aid at our department was set to be 5 minutes, the number of patients being failed was significantly reduced from 3 to 0 (p=.049) in a course of 6 months. The mean time needed for returned walking aid to be ready for loaning again significantly decreased (p=.001), with the maximum processing time reduced from five to two working days. Moreover, no more walking aids were stored outside the confined area and obstructed the clinical areas for treatment.
