Qmatic partners with Rashid Hospital to deliver Customer Flow Management (CFM) solutions based on exceptional integration with the hospital's SAM system.
Qmatic, the world's leading queue management company and the inventor of Customer Flow Management (CFM) has partnered with Rashid Hospital in an effort to improve their Outpatient Department (OPD) clinic efficiencies and provide effective information for better resource planning.
Rashid Hospital, one of the hospitals under the Department of Health Authority, is one of the region's oldest and leading healthcare facilities. It hosts outpatient clinics that provide services to national and expatriate residents of Dubai and some referred from other Emirates. The majority of the clinics are segregated whereby UAE nationals attend morning clinics and expatriates are offered the service in the afternoon. Patients are seen on appointment basis.
With the drive towards lower cost service delivery, continuous performance and process improvements are essential to the vitality of any healthcare organisation. With over 27 years of experience within the healthcare sector, Qmatic approached Rashid Hospital in a bid to improve their OPD clinic efficiencies.
Improved Patient Flow
"One of our KPIs was to streamline patient flow and Qmatic helped us achieve this by shifting the burden of directional control from manual resources to a completely automated system." said Hamed Kazim Albastaki, Head of Technical Support Office and OPD Manager, Rashid Hospital.
Previously, patients had to head to one of the multiple reception desks at the clinic to mark their attendance, verify their appointment and then be directed to the relevant nursing station for their consultation. Patients would start playing the waiting game from trying to get the receptionist's attention, to then waiting at the nurses' station and finally waiting at the relevant clinic prior to the doctor's consultation.
On initial research, the average patient waiting time was monitored as being 15 minutes. "This was totally unacceptable by our standards and we had strict orders from management to bring this level down substantially," stated Albastaki. "During the pilot phase, Qmatic proved that their innovative CFM solution could help us to bring this figure down by 70% to a mere 5 minute waiting time. The immediate effects were seen in our patients being much more satisfied with their visit."
"The Qmatic system works great for us," said Albastaki. "Our patents find the system easy to use and our department is less stressful and more productive. This improved patient flow results in time saved and reduced manpower."
Automated Appointment Validation
"We were advised that the biggest challenge the receptionists faced was dealing with invalid appointments. This called for a need to fine tune the way they serviced the appointments," said Suraj Lobo, Technical Manager Qmatic Middle East. Self service kiosks were introduced as part of the solution wherein patients would need to either swipe their health card or then enter their health card number onto the system. The system then verifies the details by integrating with the hospital's SAM system and presents patient and appointment details back onto the kiosk. If the appointment is valid, then the relevant ticket is issued with instructions on where to head (clinic or reception).
"By automating appointment validation, we are now in a position to put our frontline staff to much more efficient use." stated Hamed Kazim Albastaki, Head of Technical Support Office and OPD Manager, Rashid Hospital.
Payment Automation
As with all other Department of Health Authority facilities, there is a difference in the payment process depending on whether the patient is a local Emirati or an expatriate resident. Local Emirati patients are entitled to free healthcare and are issued with zero payment slips from reception. However, with the previous process, these patients would still need to queue at reception to be issued with this slip. In order to avoid this unnecessary procedure, the validation is automated. The CFM system checks with the SAM system to verify whether the patient is local and also whether he/she has a valid health card. If yes to both queries, then the system automatically directs the patient towards the appropriate clinic.
Improved Way-Finding
By designing the tickets to contain meaningful information, the tickets actually help patients in finding their way around the OPD clinic. The clinic can be quite confusing for a first timer with four separate sections and each section having multiple rooms. The Qmatic ticket issued is alphanumeric and uses an innovative mapping methodology linking it to the SAM system to ensure that it contains information for section number and consultation room number. For example, ticket A5001 relates to Section A, Room 5, and patient number 001. This helps the patient find his way to the right doctor in the related room and also clarifies his status in the queue.
Patient Tracking
Another important requirement from the hospital was the ability to track patients throughout their visit. With the Qmatic solution, a system administrator based in his office can monitor the patient's progress through the clinic. It basically tracks patients from the moment they enter till the time they leave using a single system and a single ticket.
In addition to this, the live management information generated by the system enables managers to take immediate measures if necessary. Managers can see patient volumes at all times, real and calculated future waiting times for reception, treatment rooms and consulting rooms. In addition, managers can see, in real time, any appointment delay times as and when they happen. As soon as waiting times exceed the set limits, managers are alerted by the system and can act accordingly.
"We are pleased to have been able to help Rashid Hospital meet their KPIs related to operational efficiency and patient flow management. Our solutions are constantly reviewed and tested to ensure that we are in a position to integrate with a wide range of existing core systems used across industries." said Fredrik Johansson, General Manager, Qmatic Middle East.
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About Qmatic
Qmatic is the inventor of Customer Flow Management (CFM) and is also the world's largest queue management company. CFM is a methodology for managing customer flow and experience from initial contact through service delivery. Qmatic operates in 122 countries and has 51,000 installations worldwide in the finance, retail, travel, healthcare and public sectors.
Qmatic's clients include Vodafone, HSBC, Carrefour, Emirates, Quantas, Volvo, British Airways and Orange. Each year a Qmatic system is used 2 billion times somewhere in the world. That's the equivalent of a quarter of the world's population passing through it every year. The CFM methodology helps organisations increase productivity and profitability and improve customer and staff experiences.
For Media Enquiries:
Christina Thomas
Marketing Communication Executive
Qmatic Middle East
PO Box 262351, Dubai, UAE
Tel: +971 4 8865121
Email: christina.thomas@qmatic.com
Web: www.qmatic.com
© Press Release 2011
