Page 227 - Hospital Authority Convention 2018

Service Enhancement Presentations

F8.6 Young HA Investigators Session 14:30 Room 421

A Mixed Surgical Ward Case Management Platform to Reduce Hospital Length of Stay
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Ho MS , Leung M , Wong MH , Leung YMC , Chuang KH , Tong KM , Ng WK , Lai TW 1
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Department of Surgery, Central Nursing Division, Information Technology Department, Princess Margaret Hospital, Hong
Kong HOSPITAL AUTHORITY CONVENTION 2018
Introduction
The first mixed surgical ward in the Princess Margaret Hospital was opened in November 2017, which handled injuired patents
involving orthopedic, neurosurgical and surgical specialties. In the light of enhancing patient management through effective
communication, an electronic communication platform was setup to facilitate patient management under the multispecialty
environment. From idea to delivery, a team of frontline colleague worked enthusiastically to develop an application aiming at
facilitating daily operation with a common goal of reducing unnecessary length of stay (LOS) in hospital.
Objectives
To setup an electronic platform with the capacity of real time communication on patient’s parent specialties and status of
consultations under a multidisciplinary environment, aiming at reducing unnecessary hospital LOS.

Methodology
A task group was formed by young nursing colleague with an average experience of seven years. The user requirements
were collected by individual discussion and communication through chat group in the web. The system was built on the web
content management platform (SharePoint), which included a simple user interface for data entry, central hub of information
update, real time displaying the status of inter specialty consultation and updated patient listing as a reminder for preparing
patient discharge. The required information could be found not only on a large display at nursing station, but also assessed
through mobile device outside the ward area while the patent’s confidentiality was protected. After implementation for two
months, preliminary evaluation was done on quantitative and qualitative perspective.
Results
After two months of implementation, positive comments have been received from users’ interview. The main themes included
well acceptance from medical and nursing colleague, high system ownership and incredibly easy to use. It was proved by
providing an efficient platform for staff to update the multidisciplinary consultations of patients and remind the relevant
parties to prevent delayed response to consultations. From initial estimation, the mixed surgical ward LOS was 5.5 days;
SD 3.7 (neurosurgery 1.5 days; SD 0.84, hip fracture 8.41 days; SD 1.91 and surgery 1.86; SD 0.69) which is lower than the
overall LOS of 6.8 days; SD 10.66 (neurosurgery 5.2 days; SD 14.51, hip fracture 11days; SD 7.42 and surgery 3.26; SD 6.24).
Although the preliminary evaluation provided encouraging result, longitudinal evaluation of the impact on LOS would be
continued in six months and 12 months’ time. Tuesday, 8 May 2018

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