R900 000 to help solve hospital’s problems
An ‘eBoard’ system will be on computers within six months
EIGHT projects created by Groote Schuur Hospital staff to solve problems affecting the facility have been granted R900 000 to implement their ideas, with hopes of rolling out these innovations to other hospitals across the Cape.
Last month, 17 teams comprising senior physicians, interns, the HR department and nurses came up with ideas to solve the hospital’s biggest challenges. A panel of 10 representatives, including those of the hospital and provincial Health Department, chose the best ideas.
The initiative was created through a partnership between the University of Cape Town’s Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Groote Schuur Hospital and UCT’s Faculty of Health Sciences to promote innovation at the facility, and the seed money was provided by the hospital’s facility board.
“Now more than ever, Groote Schuur Hospital management believes that not just medical innovations are required, but also innovations to strengthen the services to ultimately improve the patient experience and outcome,” said hospital chief executive Dr Bhavna Patel.
One of the projects chosen is the “eBoard”, intended to develop an electronic patient-care management tool to display all relevant information of patients in each ward and improve communication between health-care professionals.
The head of general internal medicine at Groote Schuur, Peter Raubenheimer, said an eBoard system would be on hospital computers within six months.
“We want to improve the efficiency in a complex environment, reduce interruptions, improve the service and quality of patient handover and management. This is a great opportunity to make a real change in hospitals, from the people who work on the floor,” he said.
An adolescent-centred service project aims to redesign the way care is provided to young people by engaging patients to create the service that they need. This will provide a model that can be adopted by other services that treat young patients.
Dr Bianca Davidson, of the Renal Unit, said: “There is a big gap in care for young people. Teenagers are going through a transition in their lives.”
She added that it was a difficult time for a healthy teenager to go through, but a chronic disease made matters worse and after the age of 12 they were moved to the hospital and regarded as adults.
“Around the world there is quite a high transplant kidney failure rate between the ages of 11 and 17. The aim of this project is to improve these outcomes,” she said.
Dr Lindi van Niekerk, head of the Inclusive Healthcare Innovation at the UCT Bertha Centre for Social Innovation, said: “Everyone in South Africa can contribute to improving our health-care system. Whether it is a health-care worker, a student or any other hospital employee, everyone has a valuable contribution to make.” The six other projects are:
The Time Machine: A tool that allows staff to design their own staffing patterns by letting them see the impact their shifts have on throughput of patients.
Streamlining Referrals: This interdepartmental project aims to develop a methodology to better manage in- and outpatient referrals.
Dare to Care: A personal development initiative for staff.
ICU 24-hour Patient Flow Chart: This project aims to develop a streamlined patient record that addresses the needs of the clinician and the nurse.
Informed Consent, Organ Donation: Aims to engage with community leaders to better understand different groups’ attitudes towards organ donation and develop methodologies to aid informed consent.
The Guide Pill Box: This will be a tool that will help patients and doctors have better conversations about their conditions and medication.