Authors (including presenting author) :
Siu CY (1), Chan KH (1), Chung KM (1), Chung KY (1), Ko WC (1), Lam CS (1), Lee WS (1), Leung WK (1), Li KH (1), Tung LH (1), Wong LC (1), Yuen TS (1), Chan LC (1), Wan S (1), Mak MY (1)
Affiliation :
(1) Physiotherapy Department, Tuen Mun Hospital, Hospital Authority
Introduction :
According to HA’s strategic plan on developing smart hospitals, digital workplace initiatives such as paperless office are highly promoted to cut down manual processes and paperwork for improving staff convenience. Physiotherapy Out-Patient Department in TMH had adopted electronic documentation since 2015 which had substantially eliminated the paper records. However, we used to rely on the paperwork to conduct new patient triage. Annually, we produced not less than 48,000 paper forms associated with the traditional triage process. In order to move forward in the paperless journey, we have adopted a paperless new patient triage workflow since 2 Jan 2025.
Objectives :
(1) To evaluate the triage processing time using the paperless workflow
(2) To evaluate the usability of the paperless workflow
Methodology :
With no financial implication, an online platform in excel format was built in the HA Drive for new patient triage. It allows clerks and Advanced Practice Physiotherapists (APPTs) to access the online platform simultaneously at different working locations without concern on the patient data privacy. New workflow involves 1) clerks input necessary data in the online platform upon registration for new patients, 2) APPTs input triage results in the online platform and 3) clerks arrange the appointments for new patients based on the triage results in the online platform.
For comparison, we counted the triage processing time of our APPTs using the paperless workflow and the traditional workflow with paper forms. Moreover, APPTs completed the System Usability Scale (SUS) for assessing the usability of the online platform for paperless triage.
Result & Outcome :
There was no significant difference in the triage processing time (p=0.40) between the paperless workflow (average 125s per case) and the traditional workflow (average 99s per case). The average SUS score was 78 out of 100 which indicated good usability of the online platform for paperless triage.
We demonstrated that the paperless new patient triage workflow was comparable to the traditional workflow. By achieving the paperless triage, we could reduce paper usage substantially and save 6 trees annually.
