Authors (including presenting author) :
SUEN YL(1), LUI LK(1), TSE SM (1), YIP LM (1), CHAN KH (1), K K WONG (2)
Affiliation :
(1) Out-Patient Department, Kwong Wah Hospital (2) Department of Orthopaedics & Traumatology, Kwong Wah Hospital
Introduction :
The Government announced in 2014 to set up a first Chinese Medicine Hospital (CMH) in Tseung Kwan O. It will commence services with about 400 beds at the end of 2024 by phases, covering services in pure Chinese medicine; and Chinese medicine-based Integrated Chinese-Western Medicine (ICWM). As for the development of ICWM, the Government commissioned Hospital Authority (HA) to implement ICWM pilot programme by phases since September 2014 and keep on-going. This is to gain experience for formulating the CMH operation in future.
Objectives :
Kwong Wah Hospital (KWH) joined the Phase II in December 2015 to provide in-patient services in Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (O&T) for eligible patients who are suffering acute low-back pain. This provides alternative medical consultation service to O&T patients by integrating Chinese medicine and treatment with a lower cost compare to market. In late 2020, Specialist Outpatient Department (SOPD) in KWH started to participate in the ICWM Phase IV to enhance the recruitment workflow and efficiency.
Methodology :
In the past, O&T surgeons and ward-nurses recruited eligible patients from ward directly upon admission, or surgeons screened out potential patients from SOPD on consultation day and referred to ward-nurses to follow-up and join the ICWM programme. To reduce unnecessary hospital visit and minimize patient admission, a new workflow had been implemented in SOPD in Q4 2020. In the outpatient setting, SOPD can provide one-stop service to patients and enhance the patient journey with integrating in-patient services as well. Starting from Q4 2020 onwards, SOPD nurses take up the role for screening, interview and recruit suitable patients for the ICWM programme within SOPD O&T clinic. SOPD nurses will explain the program to the patients, collect their written consent and arrange blood test prior to treatment. The patients do not need to admit day-ward for the same screening process as the past. In order to reduce the frequency of hospital visit, patients will be consequently informed by phone about the eligibility of participating the ICWM pilot programme.
Result & Outcome :
From December 2020 to the end of Year 2021, there were 84.6% successful cases referred to ICWM program by SOPD, the remaining 15.4% cases were unsuccessful to recruit due to patient’s medical condition problems. The high successful rate showed the outpatient nursing Intervention is effective to screen out suitable patients for ICWM program and help to identify any patient’s problems for early follow-up. Obviously, the outpatient nursing intervention in the new workflow approach is benefit to patient and hospital. It can optimize the recruitment process; improve patient care delivery by conducting patient screening & programme introduction in the same location; reduce waiting time & steps by eliminating referral transfer. In the meantime, it can reduce workload of surgeons & ward nurses; free up ward resources including staffs and rooms. Subsequently, it definitely helps to improve the efficiency of ICWM pilot programme. The new workflow approach is strongly appreciated and accepted by SOPD, O&T and patients in KWH.The KWH’s SOPD predicts more patients in KWH will participate in the volunteer-based ICWM pilotprogramme in phase IV.
