Patients used to complain of long waiting times for porters to transport them to and from SGH Renal Dialysis Centre back to the ward. On a busy day, the wait, which averaged an hour also caused schedule disruptions. The Centre also faced challenges with its out-centre services, which required nurses to move heavy dialysis machines to the patients’ bedsides in the wards. Staff safety and wellbeing was compromised, as staff complained about shoulder pains and backaches, impacting their daily activities.

To tackle these problems, a team of nurses from the Centre, and colleagues from Safety Network, Service Operations and Transportation Services came up with several process-improvement solutions. These included streamlining the way porters were assigned to transport patients to and from the wards, digitising all paper-based forms, making consumables more accessible to staff, and locating dialysis machines permanently in the wards.

The introduction of these measures helped to improve efficiency, reduce patients’ wait time and improve staff safety by preventing accidents from occurring. 

Renal Dialysis Centre Improvement Team
Singapore General Hospital

Winner of the Special Mention Team Award, Singapore Health Quality Service Awards 2018