Proposed Topic (Most preferred): :
Research and Innovations (new projects / technology / innovations / service models)
Proposed Topic (Second preferred): :
Staff Engagement and Empowerment (motivating staff / teamwork / work revamp tackling manpower issue / staff wellness / OSH / retention)
Authors (including presenting author) :
Tung MK(1), Cheng W(2), Lee HW(1), Chow TT(1), Leung HK(1), Fong KW(1), Loh A(1)
Affiliation :
Kwong Wah Hospital (1), Queen Elizabeth Hospital (2)
Introduction :
The shortage of clinical and non-clinical manpower and the tightening of financial support from the government in Hong Kong make it difficult for healthcare industry to recover owing to the impacts of social event in 2019 and the pandemic in the past 3 years. Collaboration between the government and the Hospital Authority has been in progress to increase manpower supply but still hospital management has to tackle the issue mindfully and strategically.
Objectives :
The hospital has formulated a steering group to develop plans and projects with integration of digital technologies including but not limited to clinical systems, medical equipment, 5G mobile devices, web-based cloud, private 5G network, mobile apps to facilitate patients, visitors and staff to experience the digital pathway in clinical care and daily operation.
Methodology :
In facilitation of the growth of the healthcare eco-systems, together with the future proof infrastructure, a cloud-based ITS e-Platform is developed. A hospital mobile app is designed as the “window” of clinical and non-clinical systems’ integration through the concept of building blocks on this cloud-based e-platform. Taking the advantage of the territory wide 5G network, and the adoption of “private 5G sim”, mobility of work processes for clinical & non-clinical staff is further lifted to a second level high. The in-house mobile application, namely “KWH@Work”, is developed for system integration and secured private access, paving the way for more digital use cases in our daily operation without boundary.
Result & Outcome :
In one of the workflow revamps involving nurse call integration that trial in one of the wards in KWH, the performance statistics revealed that there are 1533 number of calls per week in average. In order to respond to the call, the original respond time reduces from 20 seconds to 10 seconds, which means 4.3hours days per ward per month can be saved after the trial implementation of the digital transformation on single initiative. The implementation of this single one initiative can save more than one man month of nursing manpower in the hospital, not to mention benefit of enhanced patient care. We believe the outcome of the digital transformation depends on the vision of the leader and the implementation strategy of change agent not the infrastructure nor ITS system design.
