Update from the 24 Hour Surgery
Response to Valentine’s Day quake
The 5.7-magnitude Valentine’s Day earthquake was a harsh reminder for the 24 Hour Surgery team of Christchurch’s ongoing vulnerability to earthquakes and the need to stay prepared.
“It put our emergency response skills to the test again – and everyone rose to the occasion, as they have done many times before,” 24 Hour Surgery Clinical Director, Dr Simon Brokenshire says.
The shake triggered an evacuation of the building and staff set up an emergency surgery in the carpark to allow patients to continue to be treated. “It only knocked a few things off the shelves but for any earthquake over 5.5 we require an engineer to sign off on the building, before we are able to re-enter,” Simon says.
“Everyone did an amazing job of keeping the surgery going. They just just rolled up their sleeves and got into it – the GPs who were there on shifts, along with the rest of the team.”
While Simon, Clinical Nurse Leader Berny Hayes and Operations Manager Claire McQuilken all quickly arrived at the Surgery to help organise the re-entry process, it was three hours before staff and patients could go back into the building. “We thought it would only take 30 minutes. It was a hot day, so the team ensured shade and water were available for patients. They made good use of the canopies stored in the emergency container,” Claire says.
The Valentine’s Day quake prompted the 24 Hour Surgery to review its emergency response procedures. One of the most important learnings was to put in place an additional measure to ensure an engineer arrives on site immediately after a quake of 5.5 or stronger, to help staff and patients get back into the building as quickly as possible. “We had always kept an eye on our emergency procedures, but there is nothing like running through them in a real exercise,” Claire says.
Administration Manager Rachel Wright checks the Surgery's emergency response bag to ensure it contains up-to-date information.
Busy Christmas 2015
It was also a busy Christmas and New Year period for the 24 Hour Surgery team, providing cover for General Practices who closed over the break.
Claire says it was due reward for General Practices, who had supported the Surgery incredibly well throughout the year: “Many GPs worked here more regularly than in previous years. July, August and September are always our busiest months, and we especially relied on GPs to get through that period.”
New location for 24 Hour Surgery
Excitement is building for the 24 Hour Surgery’s shift to 401 Madras Street in mid 2017. The Surgery will occupy the ground floor of the three-storey building, while Pegasus Health offices, training rooms and education facilities will be accommodated on the other two floors.
User groups from the 24 Hour Surgery including staff and GPs have been involved in planning the design and layout of the new facility. “It’s been a really exciting process and our team can’t wait to move into a fresh new building that has been designed to better suit our needs and that of patients,” Simon, Berny and Claire say.
Queue Portal ‘puts patients first’
The 24 Hour Surgery’s new ‘Queue Portal’ will certainly be packed up and taken to the new facility. The queue management system was introduced in March 2016 to help improve patient wait times. It extracts data from patient management system MedTech, sorts it and then displays relevant information in real-time on touch screens throughout the 24 Hour Surgery.
The innovative system was a collaboration between the 24 Hour Surgery, Pegasus IT and Knowledge Management. It was designed to deliver more ‘at a glance’ information for clinical staff about patient wait times, in the context of time of arrival, age and triage codes. “As we investigated wait times, we were able to see, for example, that many children and older people were waiting longer than we thought they should be. And we’re now able to do something about that and have started to see real improvements,” the team says.
People who are really sick are automatically pushed to the top of the queue, avoiding long wait times. Additionally, patients who are referred by their GP for x-ray and post x-ray review can easily be identified and seen quickly, saving them an additional wait.
The system also allows staff to track patients as they move within key parts of the facility, with updates on their current status. “Previously our view was limited and required someone to look at each individual patient to see where they were. Now, we can see at a glance whether they’re in the waiting room, in a consultation room, in the observation area, in the main building or the annex. It means we can tell if anyone is missing or if we’ve reached capacity in a particular area. This is the beginning of what will be an additional and powerful tool to assist staff in managing patient flow,” Claire says.
The system also provides alerts when information is missing, so staff know to update and correct patient records.
‘Queue Portal’ was developed very quickly, within just six months, highlighting the successful partnership between the clinical and technical teams. “It required a lot of collaborative patient-focused decision making from a lot of people, but that’s what has made this system work so well for us,” Simon says.
“The system’s ‘at a glance’ information means that it would be a great tool for any health care institution,” Claire says.