Authors (including presenting author) :
KF Wong1, Jenny Au1, Ronald Cheng1, Karol Kong1, Salina Lo2, SK Leung2, KM Ma3, PY Leung3, Shirley Tong3, WK Wong3, Isabel Sit4, Jennifer Lam4, Gladys Kwan4
Affiliation :
(1)NTWC HAELP group B 2019, (2)Department of Surgery, (3)Ambulatory Care Center, NTWC, (4)Q&S
Introduction :
For patients, finding their right places to go in hospital may not be easy, especially (1) in a large complex center with multiple buildings, (2) services are scattered in different locations and (3) need to go many locations in a single visit. Patients may find themselves confused, frustrated or even agitated in these circumstances.
Objectives :
Design a user friendly, well printed and illustrated hospital map for patients so as to (1) improve the accessibility of different hospital services locations, (2) improve patients experience when they come to hospital, (3) enhance communication between hospital staffs and patients and (4) improve staff satisfaction in the process of educating patients
Methodology :
This 醫道通 program was piloted in the Surgical SOPD, 8/F Ambulatory Care Center, NTWC from 5/2020 to 8/2020. A newly designed colorful hospital map was prepared. In this map, different buildings of Tuen Mun hospital and commonly used facilities by surgical patients were included. This map would be distributed to patients or their relatives when (1) they were not familiar with hospital environment, or (2) they would have multiple destinations to go after surgical SOPD follow up.
Patients would be contacted 1-2 weeks after receiving the map in SOPD. A simple questionnaire would be conducted via the phone concerning this new service. Apart from the patients, involved healthcare workers, e.g. nursing staffs, would also complete the questionnaire at the end of this pilot period.
Result & Outcome :
From 5/2020 to 8/2020, 84 copies of 醫道通 map were distributed to patients/ relatives. 71 patients/ relatives completed the questionnaire (84.5%) while 13 of the map receivers could not be contacted (15.5%). Mean age of the responders was 58.1 (12-94). 38 of them were male (53.5%) and 33 of them were female (46.5%). The median destinations they needed to go were 2 (1-4 places).
The total number of responders were 89, including 71 patients/ relatives and 18 SOPD staffs.
73% of the responders thought this map was clear and 75.3% of them considered this map was easy to read. Information in the map was enough for 67.4% of them and 64.1% of them believed this map facilitated them to go to their destinations effectively.
The efficacy of using this map is promising. This program can be further developed as (1) making an English version, (2) electronic version +/- corporate into HA Go, (3) apply to other specialties and (4) apply to other large-scale hospitals with multiple complex building structures.
