Proposed Topic (Most preferred): :
Staff Engagement and Empowerment (motivating staff / teamwork / work revamp tackling manpower issue / staff wellness / OSH / retention)
Authors (including presenting author) :
Chau SL Stanley (1)(2), Wong YC June (2), Law WY Rebecca (2), Chan SF Fion (2), Dr. So HP (1)
Affiliation :
(1) Kowloon West Cluster Occupational Medicine Care Services, (2) Occupational Therapy Department Princess Margaret Hospital
Introduction :
Ergonomics Consultation Service (ECS) of Kowloon West Cluster (KWC) has support Hospital Occupational Safety by providing ergonomic advices to staff with various kinds of musculoskeletal discomfort (MSD) & offering workplace evaluation to staff & working unit since 2009. In the third quarter of 2023, ECS has incorporated the 3-D printing service of Princess Margaret Hospital & North Lantau Hospital to enhance the ergonomic intervention.
Objectives :
(1) Provide on-site workplace evaluation & job analysis for staff with MSD (2) Design and fabricate the tailor-made 3-D printing tools to tackle the ergonomic problems encountered by colleagues at workplace
Methodology :
From 1st July to 31st December 2023, Four KWC GOPCs & two KWC hospitals of 10 staff were using the service. All of them (1 male & 9 females) were supporting staff of Personal Care Assistant (PCA) & Operation Assistant (OPA). Their age group distributions were 20% (age of 41-50), 50% (age of 51-60) & 30% (age >60). They reported experiencing pain, discomfort and various difficulties in performing medication packing procedures. After conducting job analysis and on-site ergonomic evaluations, several factors contributing to these problems were identified. There were: inadequate hand grip due to aging, disease related such as hand arthritis & cumulative trauma disorders, poor product design such as easy wear & tear of the plastic bags, difficult to close & seal the bottle.
Result & Outcome :
In the cost analysis there were total three different new 3-D printing tools designed to solve different work procedures in medication packing, e.g. zipping & unzipping plastic bags of pills, closing & sealing the bottle cap of medicinal liquid, opening & closing the bottle container of pills. The unit cost of each 3-D printing aids was around HKD$22-43. The entire design & the 3-D drawing process was about 3-4 week, while the fabrication duration for each tool was around 6-8 hours. Compared to the traditional methods of tool fabrication which required metal & woodwork for at least 2-3 month time, this approach significantly reduced the time cost. Moreover, a user’s feedback survey was conducted after a trial period of 6-8 week. There were 10 staff completed the user feedback survey either by face-to-face interview or by phone. The respondents were required to rate a 5-point Likert scale (1 representing totally disagree, 2 representing disagree, 3 neutral, 4 representing agree, 5 representing total agree) in the following four items. The results were: (1) learnability with average score of 4.2; (2) effectiveness & efficiency with average score of 4.5; (3) convenience and comfort with average score of 4.2 and (4) Improve in reduction of MSD with average score of 4.5. Moreover, respondents were asked to give opinions on the prototype design of tools after few week trial period for product improvement. In 2023 KWC ECS has successfully incorporated the innovative & tailor-made 3-D printing service to reduce the musculoskeletal risks of staff in the workplace. This service provides a quick & practical solution to address ergonomic problems encountered by injured & aging staff. The high satisfaction rate reflects the efficiency and effectiveness of this service delivery.
