Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) has transformed waiting times in one of their busiest departments thanks to a patient flow management kiosk solution.
The queue management kiosk was installed in Nottingham University Hospital during Q4 of 2010 to support the blood taking department. The results show a significant improvement for patients: Wait times during peak periods improved by up to an amazing 50%, with no wait at all during off peak periods. Plus shorter waiting times have also significantly reduced the number of patients who take a ticket and leave before having their blood taken.
The kiosks were delivered by Q’nomy and overcame 3 key challenges:
• cut down waiting time, and reduce the number of patients abandoning – leaving without completing the medical procedure.
• enable dynamic load-balancing between the ward’s different services.
• improve the overall patient experience, by addressing issues such as the different languages spoken by visitors, providing information to patients.
Steve Davidson, Service Manager, Haemostasis & Thrombosis Services: “The introduction of a kiosk in out-patients has enabled us to gain a better understanding of demand for our service.
Since its introduction we have built a wealth of data that enables us to predict the days and times when additional staff may be required. It also tells us when our quiet periods are so that we can route staff resources to other areas”
Steve Davidson added “We can now further analyse staff performance and ensure that the skill mix is correct, this in turn helps us deliver a more efficient service.
“This system automatically replaces key patient information shown on the screens to other languages. For example, important messages about patient safety or hand hygiene can be shown in any language as chosen by the patient when they collected their ticket.
After that patient’s number is called all messages on screen will change again to reflect the languages of choice for the remaining patients.”
“Feedback from staff and patients has been excellent and patients have noted a real reduction in waiting times and better organisation in the service. Patients have engaged in the development and provided us with ideas for improvements to the information pages shown on the screen. We are really encouraged by these suggestions and are continually working to make patient suggested improvements.”