The Needs Assessment of Trolleys for Optimized Patient Flow in the Outpatient Department of a Tertiary Care Hospital

Needs Assessment of Trolleys for Optimized Patient Flow

Abstract

Background: Stretcher trolleys are very important support structures for patients, especially for outpatient department care. Often patients and attendants are found struggling to get the trolleys. Although hospitals keep on purchasing new ones, this equipment gets damaged very fast. Therefore, to assess the current situation a student project was assigned. Objective: To do an exploratory study and gauze the requirement for trolleys in the Outpatient Department at a tertiary care hospital in North India. Methodology: A descriptive exploratory research design was used to conduct the study at the OPD Complex at a tertiary care hospital over seven weeks from July 4, 2022, to August 20, 2022. Data was collected through direct observation using non- participant observation and a structured questionnaire. The video recording by CCTV Cameras at the entrance and exit was also reviewed to observe the movement and use of trolleys. Key Informant Interviews were conducted regarding the requirements of the trolleys in the New OPD Complex. Findings: 76% of the participants faced some sort of difficulty in getting the trolleys. Only 7% got from the waiting areas. Others got either from the road near the OPD (23%), from parking areas (16%), from different floors/levels of the OPD Complex(6%), from the nearby Centre (9%),or the emergency area (8%). A large number (31%) of patients received trolleys from other patients after their usage. Around 80 trolleys were available in the morning per day and the demand was about 103 trolleys. So, 23 more trolleys were required to fill the gap between the demand and supply of patient trolleys for a better patient experience. CCTV footage was able to find the location of the trolleys. Recommendation: Hospitals need to put in place better tracking mechanisms with the use of CCTV and artificial intelligence so that the availability of existing trolleys can be tracked. The system of maintenance can be strengthened to undertake repairs. Alternate trolley storage spaces and distribution mechanisms may be explored.