Development of Online Hospital Porter System in Saraburi Hospital
Abstract
Background: This is an action research to develop online data entry system for patient logistics and activities of hospital porters, alongside radio communication. Users of this system can track all related activities from the time of data entry. Service Level Agreement (SLA) between requesting sections and hospital porters and computerized evidences ensures continuous service without having to return to porter center. Porter center can immediately dole out work to the same or different porter upon service completion. In addition, the Center can monitor real time status of every porter. Moreover, the data in this system can be analyzed for planning, service improvement and quality assurance.
Objective: To develop online hospital porter database and analyze performance of the new system, including overall time, resource usage and user satisfaction of both porters and users.
Study design: Sample size select by purposive sampling consisting of 34 porters, ward/clinic head and user, 1 each, totalling 90. Study tools consist of 1) System development Life Cycle (SDLC). 2) Data entry forms for resource usage, overall time, porter burden and customer satisfaction form. Use frequency, percentage, average standard deviation and compare service time against guaranteed time with one sample t-test.
Result: the Online Hospital Porter System is effective. It increases the performance of porters. Tracking of porter activities, resource usage and actual time can be accessed in realtime. The system is convenient and fast. Regarding satisfaction, porters and related users are very satisfied in all aspects. Comparing actual and guaranteed time reveals that OPD porters for regular and urgent patients complete their jobs faster than the guaranteed time with significance at 0.05. As for emergency department, porters for regular and urgent patients can complete their jobs faster than guaranteed time with significance of 0.05.
Conclusion: Online Hospital Porter System really increases service performance. Data from the system can be used in making decision, quality and efficiency improvement. Hospital management team can use the data in planning, and control.
Keywords: Data-entry System, Porters, Saraburi Hospital
