NU 12 # 5 by Small Runner Alien - more efficient OPD system

NU 12 # 5
Small Runner Alien
MBAH10B HO4
ENTREP
What pisses me off in my office/ what must be done?
January 31, 2013
Faster, First Come First Serve Service...
I am from a tertiary DOH retained government hospital where there are bulk of patients seen daily at the OPD (out patient department ) for consultations. I would observe and experience the long lines formed, the long time of waiting before patients get to be examined and the red tapes that consumes the whole day of each patient, most of the time ending up unfinished with their businesses. They will have to come back the following days which will entail money to spend and time to wait again...

CONCEPT: I imagine having a digital counter like in banks or embassies where each patient coming in will be assigned a particular number and a cubicle where he/ she will be interviewed. In each cubicle there will be timers ( encoded or programmed in the system ), for monitoring of the turn around time of the doctor seeing the patient. Timers will be collected at the end of the day to evaluate the performance and base the quality of service rendered to patients, through the speed of service.

IMPLEMENTATION: Upon registration of a patient at the OPD information/ triage, a bar coded ID is issued, where all transactions will be entered and transmitted to the computers( IT system ) of the different departments. This will be the patient's ID everytime he comes for consultation and will be updated every visit.
Patient will be assigned to a particular department depending on his medical complaint. As a patient enters the particular department at the OPD, a number is assigned and the patient waits for her number to be flashed on the digital counter with the assigned cubicle indicated, where the patient would go.There will be at least four cubicles with doctors simultaneously available for consultation. History taking ,examination , treatment and management will all be done in each assigned cubicle until patient is disposed to go home. Assistants of doctors like medical interns and clerks will be assigned for each cubicle. The finished chart without pendings, should be left within that cubicle for recording and census purposes.

BENEFITS AND DIFFERENCE FROM THE EXISTING SYSTEM AND PROCESSES:
In this new system, and innovation, the long lines will be minimized or even avoided, because the flow will be faster and compared to the old system when patients just wait for their names to be called, without them knowing which real order is being followed, the new system will implement the first come first serve basis without bias and red tapes or influences from the health workers. Corruption is also addressed in this manner.
Charts won't be misplaced or lost because assigned numbers and cubicles are being recorded. At the end of the OPD day, the registration
( where number is issued ), the cubicles and records with the charts should tally. Most common problem of records being lost will be prevented.
Since evaluation of doctors ( resident trainees and fellows ) , is hard and most of the time subjective, the recording of the timers in each cubicle could be one of the objective parameter to be used to check on them. In this way, they will be more cautious and conscientious in treating their patients, at least for the consultations.. Patients would gain a fair treatment and will be able to save time, effort, money and will go home happy with results and proper management of their case.
Note: In the future, the charts may also be encoded in the system and the hospital will already be paper less. 4


Sent from my iPad