Authors (including presenting author) :
Lui CT (1), Chan OY (1), Lam W (1), Hung PS (1), Hung KL (1), Chan SY (1), Tsang MY (1), Lau CL (1), Leung Crystal (2), Yip Ricky (2), Kwok Kenny (2), Lo Edwin (2), Lam Jennifer (6), Pang Raymond (4), Lui Edward (4), So Madeleine (5), Tan Esther (5), Yam Ronald (5)
Affiliation :
(1) Department of Accident and Emergency, NTWC
(2) Information Technology Department, NTWC
(3) Quality and Safety Division, NTWC
(4) Public Affairs and Donation Management Department, NTWC
(5) Health Information and Records Office, NTWC
Introduction :
Day-in-and-out, there are numerous enquiries from patient and public to clinical and clerical staffs, including enquiry of patient location by relatives, and enquiries by patients on what are they waiting for and the waiting status in A&E. This does not only pose the problem of lacking patient-centricity and empowerment, but burden especially on clinical staffs. Recent years, all A&Es under Hospital Authority had digitally transformed the workflow and logistic data are available for patient and public empowerment.
Objectives :
To develop and implement kiosk to enable self-enquiry of (1) awaiting tasks and status for A&E patients (2) enquiry of patient location by relatives (including A&E and ward) to achieve patient and public-centric self-enquiry services.
Methodology :
The i-Enquire kiosk is designed and developed by the NTWC team. They are placed in both A&E main hall and hospital lobby to make it accessible to patients and public. The kiosk adopts a wide touch-screen design with both English and Chinese interfaces. The i-Enquire kiosk can capture A&E patient bracelet to display the real-time waiting tasks and status riding on integration to the eAED databases. On another hand, relatives can enquire a particular patients’ location in A&E or in ward, after matching specific credentialing criteria according to the policy. Series of measures were adopted to protect privacy and a comprehensive security and privacy impact assessment had been conducted.
Result & Outcome :
The i-Enquire Kiosk had been piloted in Tuen Mun Hospital in January 2025. Publicity promotion plans would be aligned with the pilot including social media, leaflets as well as local promotional measures. The kiosk achieves triple win in patient and public empowerment, relieve enquiring burdens on clinical staffs, and positive images of digital and smart hospital. The development aligns HA Smart Hospital 2.0 direction and blueprint in establishing connected patient journeys and being patient-centric and highly-touchable by public. The i-Enquire kiosk is scalable and sustainable for deployment in other hospitals in HA. In the future, mobile enquiry integrating HA Go apps would be developing direction for digital patient journey.
