Improvements

Patient calls the hospital as well as the specialist and an issue where the patient was put on hold for 4 and 3 minutes respectively. This doesnt seem like a significant delay however there is an opportunity for improvement which would help promote the overall business functions of the hospital/specialist and thus help promote patient care. There are a number of possibilities to reduce the in-call waiting time; however the most plausible reason for the delay was a lack of staffing. A hospital/specialist need to be well equipped to handle the number of people who enter the hospital, however because injuries and enquires can happen at any time or place it could be difficult to predict the number of staff needed on any particular day. This is where staff forecasting tool would be appropriate. It is unclear if the hospital/specialist is using a staff forecasting tool or however it is worth mentioning. Staff forecasting is a statistical and trend analysis tool, with specific focus on making sure that a hospital/specialist has enough staff to meet the day-to-day requirements. There are many companies such as Health Care Financial Management Association (HMFA) that provide models for staff forecasting. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/25059916?uid=3737536&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid= 21100807963951 http://www.hfma.org/Publications/E-Bulletins/Business-of-Caring/Archives/2009/March/Case-Study-Improving-Staff-Forecasting/

There is another issue where someone within the x-ray department "assures" that the x-rays would be printed by the time the patient arrives to pick them. An assurance doesnt guarantee that the x-ray will be printed and a patient time is valuable especially when they are still trying to determine what illness or injury they have sustained. A solution to this would be to implement a hospital alerting and notification system (HANS). HANS would notify the task(s) that need to be completed before a deadline as well as alert that the deadline is drawing near for incomplete task(s). The usefulness of HANS is evident through the implementation of the ever bridge emergency notification system, which has currently been implemented to over 400 Hospitals in the United States. http://www.everbridge.com/healthcare

One of the more critical issues was covered in points 20-21, where two critical issues were presented 1. X-ray were not printed on time 2. No report was given

These two problems attributed significantly to the waiting time. Firstly the x-ray were not printed which forced the patient to wait 15 minutes; this posed a significant risk as the patient condition was unknown. Secondly no report was given which resulted on the GP completely disregarding said x-ray and notified the patient to re-take another set of x-ray. Ignoring the fact that his made have been at the despair of the patient this wasted over an hour of the patient time, again which posed a significant risk as the patient condition was unknown. One solution to solve both these problems would be for the hospital to adopt Radiographic Digital Imaging (RDI). RDI is a specific type of radiography which relies on a digital media to capture and present the pictures it takes, rather than the more classic use of photographic film. It transition from a paper-based system to electronics based system. Since the x-ray exists in a digital media the patient wouldnt need to wait for them to be printed they would simply be transferred to the GP via the internet. As well the report could be arranged in the same manner, the GP would call the specialist and since the report would exist electronically it would transferred into the doctors email or system via the internet this method completely eliminates the need for the patient to physically present any documents or wait for said documents to process. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-radiographic-digital-imaging.htm http://www.xrayimaging.com.au/bulk-billing/

The final issue for improvement is the fact that the patient has to physically visit the GP in order for him to be referred to a specialist. Although the consultation takes only 10 minutes the patient journey model doesnt factor in the commute to travel to the GP. The solution is dependent on the above solution where RDI is being implemented. Assuming RDI is being used rather than having the patient having to visit the doctor for a consultation the doctor or a representative could get in contact with the patient via phone, email and give the diagnosis via the respective medium be it phone line or internet. In addition there have been instances where doctors have email referrals to patient via encrypted email or fax. A possible solution would be email the referral letter to the patient via a secure and encrypted method which can be printed by the patient. This overall eliminates the need for a person to person visit.