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The "A&E Queue Viewer" is a webcam that serves live images of the emergency department waiting area at Alexandra Hospital on-line, informing the public of the crowd situation. The images posted on the Alexandra Hospital Website is refreshed every 5 minutes. Introduced in September 2006, the use of live information to influence the use of the emergency department is probably the first of its kind in the world.
The concept of this approach is based on the "Hejunka" principle in Toyota Production System. "Hejunka" means to level or to make smooth. Essentially, if the crowd in the emergency department could be "leveled", reducing the peaks and surges, many benefits for patients could be derived. These include lower waiting time, better matching of resource (doctors/nurses) to patients, more value-add time spent with healthcare provider.
To achieve Hejunka, we focused on modifying the behaviour of P3 patients (i.e. those with minor emergencies), which makes up about 60% of our daily workload. The use of webcam to do this is inspired by Land Transport Authority's one-motoring website, where up-to-date live traffic situation along major expressways is posted on-line, helping drivers avoid crowded roads.
A simple analysis showed that the waiting time for 95% of our patients was reduced to 1hour 12 minutes in October 2006, as compared to 1hour 43minutes in October 05. It is not clear as to whether the implementation of the webcam contributed to the positive result, but the project team believes that the system will work if all emergency departments in the island post similar information on-line.
Starting from 1 March 2007, the average waiting time of patients in the department and the number of patients waiting to be seen by a doctor are also included in the webpage. This information is derived from our department clinical management system, Careline (R), and is updated every 5 minutes.
Special thanks to the project team which makes this idea a reality:
Dr. Tan Yung Ming
Mrs. Quek Ngor Koon
Dr. Paul Wang
Mr. Lim Chai Seng
Ms. Diana Jamaludin
Thanks to Mr. Liak, our CEO, for constantly challenging us to push the boundaries of innovation and excellence.
Our Queue Viewer got in the news! Read all about them
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