Automated system for the management of waiting times and flow of patients in the hospital

Implementation of an automated system for the management of turns at the Hospital Universitari Sagrat Cor, which enables: - The management of waiting times and the flow of patients in the hospital. - The provision of information to patients’ relatives/companions. - The protection of patients’ identity.

Person responsible for the Good Practice

Corporate website

Description

In order to be able to implement this system, it has been necessary to equip different areas in the hospital with communication infrastructures and hardware devices (display screens, electronic kiosks, ticket printers and computers).
The following healthcare areas have been computerised:

-       Emergency Department
-       Outpatient Clinic
-       Outpatient Surgery

In the Emergency Department, the system allows the waiting turns of patients arriving at the service to be managed, as well as the flow between the different resources and spaces (triage, fast-track consultation, cubicles, treatment rooms, etc. When the patient arrives at Admissions, they are given two tickets (one for them and another for their relative or companion), which will be their identifiers for the subsequent calls and information that is provided on the screens or at the informative kiosks.

In the Outpatient Clinic, the system allows patients to register themselves when they arrive at the service using the electronic kiosks. This way, they don’t have to queue up to wait to be attended to by the administrative staff and they can go directly to the doctor’s waiting room, where they are called by means of a screen. This is made possible by the fact that the system identifies the patient (by reading their healthcare card or health insurance card, or by them introducing their National Identity Number at the kiosk) and does a double cross-check: with the programmed outpatient visits for that day and with the electronic confirmation system of the health insurance in question. When the visit cannot be confirmed at the electronic kiosk, the patient takes a ticket to another waiting room where they wait to be called by administrative staff.

In the Outpatient Surgery, the system allows the waiting turns of patients who have a programmed surgical intervention to be managed. In this case, in the hospital cafeteria/canteen and in the surgical areas, information screens have been installed for relatives/companions that show at which stage the patient is at in the surgical procedure, with messages such as: “Patient entering surgery”, “Patient leaving surgery and proceeding to recovery”, “Patient leaving recovery and going to the 6th floor of hospitalisation”, etc. This way, relatives and companions are informed of the progression of the surgical process while they have a coffee or something to eat in the cafeteria.

Needs

To manage patients’ appointments with the different hospital services in an organised and streamlined manner.
To improve patients’ waiting times.
To optimise the hospital resources used to provide services to patients.
To protect patients’ identity using encoded phone calls and alerts instead of nominal ones (in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation - GDPR).
To provide patients’ relatives/companions with information.
To improve patient care and the hospital’s public image.

Results

Time optimisation. Monthly average of patients managed in the Emergency Department: 3,750. Monthly average of patients managed in the Outpatient Clinic: 29,000. Monthly average of patients managed in Outpatient Surgery: 1,250