Authors (including presenting author) :
Cheung WM(1), Suen SM(2), Tong KM(3)
Affiliation :
(1)Q&S (2)CND (3)IT department, Kowloon West Cluster
Introduction :
Accident & Emergency (A&E) Department and wards were once jammed with COVID patients in Kowloon West Cluster (KWC). Despite Community Treatment Facilities (CTF) were established for stabilized patients, the turnover was limited by the overwhelming demand, fragmented information and communication bottlenecks. Supervisors encountered difficulty in gathering real-time information to facilitate preparation of isolation capacity, patient movements and bed management; Frontline staff need to use various systems and communicate with different parties for identifying suitable patients for vaccination, hospital discharge and transfer. An integrated KWC COVID Dashboard was developed in the midst of the emerging fifth wave.
Objectives :
(1) To visualize real-time information for bed management and to speed up patient discharge/transfer decision (2) To facilitate in-patient vaccination by automatic calculation of COVID vaccine eligibility according to latest guidelines (3) To display real-time AIIR utilization and ward occupancy in cluster hospitals for management to formulate strategy on resource utilization and capacity management (4) To generate a patient summary view with filtering and sorting function (patient/ward/specialty/clinical criteria) to facilitate patient care and movement
Methodology :
Central nursing team, IT and Q&S team jointly developed an integrated dashboard in 2Q2022 to monitor the number of A&E attendance and the number of patients staying at various A&E zones. The profile of newly admitted COVID patients and the total number of COVID in-patients over past 24 hours were also monitored. Without extra or additional data input, ward staff and management could make use of this dashboard in their daily operation. Dashboard enhancement allowed frontline to select eligible in-patients for COVID vaccination, hospital discharge or download to CTF. New sorting/filtering function on residential address to facilitate referral of stabilized patients back to original clusters for further management/rehabilitation.
Result & Outcome :
This dashboard provided a one-stop platform for frontline and management team to master real time information for patient care and decision making. Patient discharge/transfer process and resource mobilization/utilization was enhanced. No admission/access block for COVID patients was observed in KWC in December 2022 and early January 2023. It has proven itself a useful adjunct for patient care and resource utilization/management.
