Authors (including presenting author) :
TONG WC, CHENG YF, KONG HC, LEE KO, LAM SY
Affiliation :
Procurement & Materials Management Department, Kowloon East Cluster
Introduction :
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in early Year 2020, all the hospitals in Hong Kong have been facing unprecedented challenges in fighting the pandemic disease. Along with other administrative service teams, KEC Procurement & Materials Management Department (KEC P&MM) has been under extreme pressure in providing various administrative and logistic support to all the clinical departments over the last three years, especially during the 5th wave of the epidemic which occurred in Mid-Year 2022. Apart from safeguarding the supply of PPE to our clinical users in collaboration with BSSD, the Department also committed its full strength of manpower in processing all the very urgent and even emergency purchase requests for various medical equipment and hospital supplies to ensure that all the essential items required could be delivered to our end users in time. Under such circumstances, we have seen that our Fast Track Procurement Service which was set up at TKOH Year 2020 and later at HHH in Year 2022 have played an active role in processing the urgent PRs and clearing backlogs for our clinical units to secure the equipment or hospital supplies needed by the end users. Even during these peak seasons, the fast track teams could manage to keep the procurement lead time for purchases below $50,000 and $100,000 within the HA reference lead time of 21 days and 28 days with 100% compliance; and within 14 days and 21 days with over 90% compliance. It is proven that such set up of fast track teams can provide a better support to user departments especially during the peak seasons such as COVID outbreak or Winter Surge period.
Objectives :
(1) To speed up the procurement process by streamlining workflow and focusing efforts in processing Purchase Requisitions (PR) and Purchase Orders (PO) for minor value purchases below $100K; and
(2) To provide timely and urgent procurement and sourcing support for clinical departments during COVID-19 pandemic.
Methodology :
(1) A clear Key Performance Indicator was assigned to the Team. PR-PO procurement lead time is targeted to be shortened by 7 calendar days from 28 days to 21 days for purchases below $100K and from 21 days to 14 days for purchases below $50K.
(2) Satellite offices were set up at TKOH and HHH to enhance communication flow and enable a closer working relationship with the local TKOH/HHH end users.
(3) PR-PO Monitoring Report is generated on monthly basis to evaluate the performance of the team and to monitor the PR-PO procurement lead time.
Result & Outcome :
The Fast Track Procurement Team commenced its operation in early January 2020. For the past year (Dec 2021 – Nov 2022), the team had issued over 9,400 POs, of which over 80% of requisitions had achieved the target of shortening the procurement lead time.
During the 5th wave of COVID-19 pandemic, while TKOH had converted some wards and HHH was appointed as a designated hospital for Covid-19 patients, the Fast Track Team played a critical role in speeding up procurement process for all minor purchases of value below $100K, having issued a large number of urgent POs to tackle the critical situation and ensure urgent goods and services could be purchased and delivered to support clinical staff and services in the hospitals.
