Page 131 - Hospital Authority Convention 2017

Service Enhancement Presentations

F2.6 Staff Engagement and Empowerment 13:15 Room 421

Express Queue Service in Specialist Outpatient Clinic Pharmacies
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Wong JCY , Lee ASW , Ngan TMS , Chung FF , Chan PPS , Chan SWC , Law KKM , Lau CLF , Lam WH , Au VPW , Lee BSC ,
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Wong JKW , Ko ST , Ng PKF , Lo JCT , Lam SF 4 HOSPITAL AUTHORITY CONVENTION 2017
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Chief Pharmacist’s Office, Hospital Authority Head Office, Pharmacy Department, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Pharmacy
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Department, Prince of Wales Hospital, Information Technology and Health Informatics Division, Hospital Authority Head Office,
Hong Kong
Introduction
Over the years, different measures had been adopted to address the waiting time of Specialist Outpatient Clinic (SOPC)
pharmacy to meet increasing service demands. Yet, major process re-engineering would be necessary to realise further
achievements. An analysis on prescription data found that a significant proportion of prescriptions contained only one
drug item. Upon further deliberation, a model of “pharmacy express queue” in SOPCs to give priority to single-item drug
prescriptions with proper IT infrastructure support has been developed. Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH) and Queen Elizabeth
Hospital (QEH) pharmacy had been selected as pilot sites for the project before further rollout to other SOPC pharmacies.
Objectives
(1) To improve dispensing efficiency and reduce patient waiting time at SOPC pharmacy; (2) to enhance overall patient
satisfaction on drug collection at SOPC pharmacy; and (3) to improve staff morale and job satisfaction.
Methodology
(1) Analyse the number and type of “single item” drug prescriptions;
(2) Re-engineer pharmacy dispensing workflow to enable express queue service for “single item” prescriptions; Tuesday, 16 May
(3) Enhance pharmacy IT system to serve multiple queues;
(4) Promulgate service change to patients, provide conspicuous guidance in the waiting halls, and manage expectations.
Results
With the collaborative efforts of the Chief Pharmacist’s Office, hospital pharmacies and Hospital Authority IT service, the
programme had been piloted with promising results. The benefits of this project include significantly decreased waiting time
for “single item” prescriptions, with an average waiting time less than 30 minutes for the express queue. More importantly,
there was no impact on the waiting time for patients collecting medications through normal queueing. In addition, there was
less congestion in the waiting hall, reduced patient enquiries and complaints. The number of uncollected medications was
significantly reduced. The staff overtime hours was also decreased.

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