Development of Care System for Patient Safety in Outpatient Department of Medical Service at Buriram Hospital

Abstract

The objective of this study was to develop a system for patient safety in outpatient department of Burirum Hospital, Burirum province. The components of the system included patient screeining, sign and symptom assessment, observation of deterioration during waiting, emergency support, establishing patient observation units, creating signs for improving communication among team members, etc. The Plan-Do-Check-Action cycle was applied throughout the process. The patient safety from medical services was assessed by comparing the outcomes before the initiation of the system (year 2010) and those observed during the system implementation (2011 – 2012). Such outcome indicators included the number of patients with relapse symptom while waiting for treatment till hospitalized or died, the waiting time before receiving treatment. It was found that the number of patients with deterioration dropped from 11 cases in the 2010 to 2 and 0 cases in 2011-2012, respectively; the waiting time for general patients was reduced from 3.10 hrs to 2.47 hrs and 1.39 hrs; and the waiting time for emergency patients reduced from 37 minutes in 2011 to 25 minutes in 2012.