Authors (including presenting author) :
Wong SKY(1), Fung VH(1), Lam DHM(1), Lau SKK(1), Chung CKY(1), Lau EHY(1)
Affiliation :
(1) Information Technology and Health Informatics Division, Hospital Authority Head Office
Introduction :
To support patients in registering and paying attendance fee anytime and anywhere, “Outpatient Registration / Payment Service” (service) had been developed for HA patients as one of the functions in the mobile application HA Go. By saving time on the traditional queuing at clinic counters, the service improved patient experience in the healthcare journey and facilitated social-distancing in order to reduce the risk of cross-infection amongst patients and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. The service was launched in Nov 2019. To extend the service rollout in more Specialist Out-patient Clinics (SOPC) and in response to the pandemic, Co-delivery approach was adopted.
Objectives :
To support more SOPCs and disciplinary on the service adoption across HA by Co-delivery approach.
Methodology :
The service was piloted at SOPCs in United Christian Hospital with positive feedback collected. In view of the extensive exposure of HA Go to public, the service was expected to be adopted in more SOPCs and disciplines exponentially. Hence, Co-delivery approach was applied in further rollout.
Under Co-delivery approach, clinics would initiate and lead the service rollout such as advising service scope and rollout schedule, liaising with hospital stakeholders and facilitating patient participation. HAHO IT&HI would support the rollout in the way of providing staff training, promulgation materials and utilization reports.
Result & Outcome :
Compared with rolling out a service in a clinic at a time, SOPCs took the lead by Co-delivery which expedited the service rollout to 2,082 SOPCs in seven clusters within half year. Positive feedback was received from the SOPC colleagues. More SOPCs and other disciplines (e.g. Allied Health) had raised interest to join the rollout in 2021. To get more understanding on patient’s satisfaction and review on the service, an electronic survey will be enabled in HA Go soon to collect users’ feedback after successful registration / payment. The service adoption would be moving towards a self-serviced way that clinics could further proceed the rollout on their own.
