Authors (including presenting author) :
CHAN CWJ(1), YEUNG YP(2), LEE NY(3), KWOK WY(4), LO YH(5)
Affiliation :
(1) Central Nursing Department, Caritas Medical Centre, (2) Allied Health Departments, CMC, (3) Supporting Services Department, PMH
Introduction :
Outbreak of 5th wave of COVID 19 pandemic from early Feb to late Mar 2022 bring serious impact on CMC. Influx of emergency patient, severe congestion of COVID in-patient in whole hospital, and difficulties in delivering care to prolonged waiting patient in A&E. NEATS Go Go Team was set up for speeding up inpatients turnover to release capacity of ward for admission of patients waiting at A&E.
Objectives :
1. Enhance the efficiency in internal transport (ward to NEATS vehicle) of COVID 19 patients 2. Shorten NEATS vehicle’s waiting time to pick up CMC COVID 19 patients after arrival 3. Enhance inter hospitals/ institutions (CMC to specified destinations) transport of COVID 19 patients 4. Increase the turnover of hospital beds for new emergency admissions to help decongest A&E cases 5. Retain needy manpower in wards for in-patient services 6. Shorten transport time of COVID bodies to Hospital Mortuary
Methodology :
NEATS Go Go Team, operated from 11th to 22nd March 2022, and 30th Aug to 16th Sep 2022 were formed to fasten the transportation of COVID patient from wards to NEATS loading bay for discharge and COVID body to hospital mortuary. Workflow were streamlined by engaging hospital departments. Time spent for transportation was collected and compared to time spent of original workflow.
Result & Outcome :
308 COVID patients and 19 COVID bodies were handled during operating period of NEATS Go Go team. Average waiting time at CMC for each NEATS vehicle (loading of 3-4 patients per vehicle per time)before departure was 120-180 minutes (information from KWC NEATS Office) before and it was shortened to averaging 26.5 minutes per vehicle after establishment of NEATS Go Go Team with streamlined workflow. 19 COVID bodies were handled by NEATS Go Go team. Time spent for transport of COVID bodies from wards to Hospital Mortuary had shortened by 66% in average.
