english
introduction
The Department of Pharmaceutical Services in King Fahd Medical City aims to provide the best medical services to patients to improve the quality of health care they receive in harmony with the rest of the departments of King Fahd Medical City.
Based on this goal, the Pharmaceutical Services Department has established a mail-delivery service for medicines inside and outside Riyadh, a service that allows King Fahd Medical City patients to request their medicines for free through a dedicated application to be sent to them via express mail, whether inside or outside Riyadh.
It was found that the utilization of this service is low for several reasons, and it was noted that few patients know about this service.
This research presents an working plan to improve patients' demand for the drug mail-delivery service and increase the percentage of patients who know this service. wherefore we conduct a Retrospective study at King Fahd Medical City, Riyadh, KSA, for six months period; Oct 1, 2021 to Apr 1, 2022. Data were collected from EPIC (Health Care Operation System) and electronic patient satisfaction survey.
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project Methodology
the Methodology has been adopted is
FOCUS-PDCA Methodology,
It is a formal process of improvement that many organizations use in order to direct improvement efforts. In fact, FOCUS-PDCA is an acronym for a specific problem-solving method. FOCUS is an acronym for: F (find), O (Organize), C (Clarify), U (Understand), S (Select). PDCA is an acronym for: P (Plan), D (Do), C (Check), A (Act)
F (find)
The process that needs improvement is the mail-delivery service for medicines via express mail inside and outside Riyadh, a service provided by the Department of Pharmaceutical Services in King Fahd Medical City, where we noticed a problem, which is the lack of demand for medicines via express mail by patients, we discovered this problem through The data from EPIC which showed that the rate of requesting of medications was low in the first three months (Oct,Nov and Dec).
also The electronic patient satisfaction survey showed a low percentage of patients who know the service, as well as a low percentage of patients' satisfaction with the service in the first three months (Oct,Nov and Dec).
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O (Organize)
The entity that can improve this process and solve the problem is the Department of Pharmaceutical Services in King Fahd Medical City and King Fahd Medical City’s social media Department.
The employees who can contribute are the Pharmaceutical Services Department Manager (who is responsible for managing this entire process), the Pharmaceutical Services Department staff, the Software Engineer in the Pharmaceutical Services Department, and the King Fahd Medical City’s social media team.
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C (Clarify) (Process Clarify)
Department of Pharmaceutical Services in King Fahd Medical City work for provide the patients with the medications they need , in order to improve the quality of the medical services provided to them. The drug is distributed in several ways, including the medicines mail-delivery service via express mail inside and outside the city of Riyadh. In this service, medication is sent to patients based on the patient’s request. Patients can order medications through this service in several ways, through the IKFMC application, by phone call, or by coming to the pharmacy and requesting the service. After ordering the medicines, medicines are sent by express mail inside or outside the city of Riyadh.
Patients' demand for the mail-delivery service was low, according to thr study conducted in King Fahd Medical City. The study also showed that the percentage of patients who knew the medicine-delivery service by express mail was low, and also showed that the percentage of patients who were satisfied with the service was also low.
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U (Understand)
It is necessary to know the percentage of people who use the medicines mail-delivery service.
As for the people who use this service, we must know how they attain this service, for example, through a billboard, or the doctor told them about the the service.
Data was collected through the EPIC system which provided the number of those who use the medicines mail-delivery service. A shortage of beneficiaries was noted, For example, during the month of October, the number of requests was only 40 requests per day, while in normal circumstances, the number should be up to 100 requests per day.
An electronic patient satisfaction survey was also published in which patients of King Fahd Medical City participated in order to find out the extent of patients' satisfaction and their knowledge of the medicines mail-delivery service. In October, only 30% of patients knew of this service, and patients' satisfaction with the service was low.
The reasons for the patients’ lack of participation in this service are represented in their lack of their knowledge of this service and the lack of their knowledge of how to activate the service due to the lack of advertisements informing patients about the service and the absence of the necessary explanations to clarify the service and how to activate it.
Measures must be taken to familiarize more patients with the medicines mail-delivery service, and to teach them how to use and request this service, as well as encourage them to request this service.
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S (Select)
The proposed procedures that can inform patients about the medicines mail-delivery service and how to activate it and increase the proportion of beneficiaries are: hunging billboards display information about this service in the various corridors of King Fahd Medical City, distributing advertisement cards to patients within King Fahd Medical City, posting advertisements on social media of The King Fahd Medical City present information about this service and explains how to use it.
we can check the increase of users of the service and achievement the desired results by checking the number of service applicants through the EPIC system. the percentage of people who know about the service can be known through the electronic patient satisfaction survey, and their satisfaction with it can also be known through this survey.
PDCA
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P (Plan)
An action plan has been defined to achieve the required improvement with A timetable , and defining those responsible for plan implementation, and defining the tasks assigned to them
The tasks were as follows:
Create expressive ads: During the month of December 2021, the Director of the Pharmaceutical Services Department communicated with the software engineer in the Pharmaceutical Services Department Requested from him creating high-quality advertising cards (designated for distribution to patients) and also creating billboards (dedicated to be hung within the corridors of the Medical City), and that these advertisements contain Pictures and text materials identifying the medicines mail-delivery service provided by the Pharmaceutical Services Department, and showing a simple explanation on how to benefit from this service.
Hanging billboards in King Fahd Medical City: The director of the Pharmaceutical Services Department demand from his employees to hang billboards in the corridors of the Medical City, such as reception and waiting rooms. starting from mid-December 2021.
Distribution of advertising cards to patients within the hospital: The Director of the Pharmaceutical Services Department requests the employees in the Pharmaceutical Services Department to distribute advertising cards to patients in many places such as hospital doors, waiting rooms, and various patient wards. starting from mid-December 2021.
Advertisements about the medicines mail-delivery service in social media: The software engineer in the pharmaceutical services department creates ads dedicated to social media inform patients about the medicines mail-delivery service and provides explanations on how to benefit from this service, he performs this work during the month of December 2021, and then communicates with the social media team of the King Fahd Medical city to request posting advertisements about medicines mail-delivery service, advertisements are published starting from mid-December 2021.
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D (Do)
The director of the pharmaceutical services department, the pharmaceutical services department staff, the software engineer and the social communication team of King Fahd Medical City, each of them carry out the tasks assigned to them efficiently and according to the schedule.
The Director of the Pharmaceutical Services Department supervises the progress of work, receives regular reports from each individual involved in this process, including a summary of the tasks he has accomplished, and verifies by himself that the tasks to be carried out correctly.
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C (Check)
The following results were observed:
The number of requests on the EPIC system: an increase in the number of requests to send medicine by express mail through the EPIC system was noticed, where the number of requests in the middle of January reached 70 requests per day, then 100 requests at the end of January, while the number reached 140 requests per day in the month February. This is a large, gradual increase in the number of requests, compared to 40 requests per day in October. so, we have positive results that indicate to the success of the action plan and its achievement of its objectives.
Percentage of patients who know the service according to the electronic patient satisfaction survey: In view of the results of the questionnaire, it was noted that the percentage of participating patients who know the medicines mail-delivery service via express mail increases, as the percentage of patients who know this service reached 50% in January and reached 80% in February, This represents a significant improvement compared to 30% in October. While the percentage of patients' satisfaction with this service reached 95% in February, and this is greater than the percentage of satisfaction in October, which is 40%. so, we notice good results that indicate to the success of the plan and the achievement of its objectives.
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A (Act)
We noticed the success of the plan that we drew, which included distributing advertisement cards to patients and hanging billboards in the corridors of King Fahd Medical City, as well as posting advertisements on social media. It has achieved its goals of increasing patients' knowledge of the medicines mail-delivery service via express mail, increasing their satisfaction with it, and increasing patients' demand for this service through the EPIC system.
these results are in line with the policy of the Department of Pharmaceutical Services in King Fahd Medical City, which is to improve medical services provided to patients.
this plan can be judged as successful and achieved its goals, and we recommend continuing with application this plan, thus we always guarantee a high rate of utilization of the medicines mail-delivery service via express mail inside and outside the city of Riyadh, and thus also we always achieve a large percentage of patients who know this service and have high satisfaction with it.