Authors (including presenting author) :
HO CM, TANG LM, KWOK MK, SIT LM, CHAN WK, AU KM
Affiliation :
Occupational Therapy Department, Tai Po Hospital
Introduction :
Rehabilitation is a key strategy for achieving sustainable development of healthcare system. However, growing service demand, stringent manpower and inadequate treatment area limited the service capacity and quality. It creates long waiting time of patients during treatment and staff’s excessive travel in the treatment area. In view of the emerging situation, the Occupational Therapy department of Tai Po Hospital redesigns the treatment area and workflow in order to improve the treatment efficiency, staff workflow and enhance overall experience for patients during inpatient rehabilitation.
Objectives :
• To reduce patients’ waiting time during treatment • To reduce staff excessive travel in the training workshop
Methodology :
Baseline analysis of patient journey and workflow by value stream mapping with comparison upon project completion. Associate factors on workshop efficiency was explored including environment, staff, equipment, materials and methods were explored through fish bone diagram. A core work group was formed for project planning and monitoring.
Result & Outcome :
Baseline analysis on patient journey through value stream mapping, a pm session on a random date in October 23 indicated that patient spent 90 minutes in the treatment area for around one-hour treatment on average, over 30 minutes of waste in waiting for training activities. On-site observation found that major reasons due to unevenness utilization of treatment area and some congested areas noted, equipment scattered in shelf and treatment table which lack of organization, materials lack of labelling and categorization, excessive travelling of staff for equipment or materials as storage area located in the corner area and ineffective staff allocation in the treatment area. Improvement plan focuses on application of 5S and visual management including, 1) Sort to ensure ergonomic in place, relocate the storage area to center of the treatment area in order to reduce staff excessive travel, 2) Set in order to minimize congestion and create clear pathways with designated treatment areas e.g. ADL corner, upper limb training and hand function training, 3) Standardization of procedures to streamline operations e.g. rearrange schedule to support the peak hours, and 4) Sustain a culture of continuous improvement including, recognize staff participation, regular review, collect feedback and ongoing process refinement. Upon completion of workshop redesign, patient’s time spent on waiting reduced to ~15 minutes and able to complete the session around one hour. In conclusion, identifying and eliminating wastes, empowering staff and fostering a culture of continuous improvement deliver greater value to our patients and contribute to the overall success and competitiveness.
