• Multi-institution and multi-disciplinary taskforce implements more streamlined booking system across institutions
  • Initiatives they rolled out save time, reduce load of calls handled by agents in the call centres and improve appropriateness of referrals
Two years ago, patients trying to book appointments would complain about not getting through to the appointment hotlines, and long waiting times at SingHealth Polyclinics (SHP) to book referrals to specialist clinics.
 
A streamlined appointment booking service recently implemented now allows patients to experience a smoother healthcare journey.
 
An integrated online and mobile appointment system was introduced to allow patients to manage their appointments at their convenience.
 
With a new triage and referral system, SHP doctors can now better determine if a patient needs specialist care, which specialty he needs to be referred to and whether fast track appointments are required. Institution staff are also empowered to book cross-institution appointments for patients.
 
The concerted effort by various initiatives under the Appointments Access Task Force (AATF) saves more than 7,000 calls per month.
 
“We used to take 15 to 20 minutes to get through to the appointment hotline, and another five minutes to book an appointment. The whole process now takes less than five minutes,” said Ms Sariah Kamarudin, a Patient Services Clerk at SHP.
 
The outstanding results earned AATF the Merit Award for Most Innovative Project/Policy at 2015’s PS21 ExCEL Awards.
 
Co-chaired by Associate Professor Agnes Tan, Chairman of Ambulatory & Clinical Support Services Division at SGH, and Ms Lee Chen Ee, Director of SingHealth’s Office for Service Transformation (OST), the taskforce comprised five workgroups which looked into areas that contribute to better patient experience.
 
SingHealth Deputy Group COO (Operations Integration) and SNEC COO, Ms Charity Wai was Co-Lead for the Integrated Appointment and Call Centre Workgroup. To her, it all boils down to teamwork and good data analysis.
 
“We had the cooperation of a workgroup that shared their experience on every type of appointments made. At the same time, we collected data and analysed the types of calls various centres were handling.
 
They took every appointment process apart and found that up to 30 per cent of calls were from fellow SingHealth institutions. That set us in the right direction – reducing such calls and freeing the lines up for patients.”
 
Away from the call centres, the work by AATF’s Referral Protocol Workgroup in revising the referral protocol allowed urgent cases to be seen more quickly, providing decision-making support for doctors through IT platforms.
 
In one department, the appropriateness of referrals increased from 36 per cent to 89 per cent.
 
Adjunct Assistant Professor Jack Tan, Deputy Head and Senior Consultant at NHCS Cardiology, who was co-lead for this workgroup shared, “The challenge was that every institution worked differently.”
 
“Although we created a standard referral template to solve the differences, it would have been ineffective if no one wanted to use it. The conversations between all the multidisciplinary workgroups were what truly translated into meaningful results.”
 
Despite the challenge, staff from all levels were willing to put in their support to improve the clinical care process for their patients – from the division chair and clinicians to administrators, operations staff and ward clerks.
 
“I really appreciate our SHP colleagues because we had to find something that really works on the ground. Direct appointment booking looks very logical but it involves a lot of mindset change and crosstraining,” said Prof Jack Tan.
 
Complementing the new appointment  protocol is a new call centre Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. This system alone has reduced the number of calls that had to be personally handled by a  call agent by around 13 per cent.
 
Ms Wai shared, “The beauty of this project is that we used the same system, but customisation was available for each institution to meet their specific needs.”
 
More than 24 staff members from nine institutions were involved to implement the integrated system. The intention was for the workgroups to fine-tune and work towards consolidating the call centres into one.
 
Michael Choo, Assistant Director at OST, added, “The taskforce broke down silos across different healthcare institutions, departments, and care settings, shared information collectively, and allowed staff in various frontline roles and across institutions to access the appointment system.
 
It is a demonstration of the tremendous power of collaboration in a multi-disciplinary team with different needs working towards a common goal – putting patients at the heart of all we do.”