ABSTRACT
Simplified outpatient service flow and higher service efficiency can save back-and-forth trips and queuing time of outpatients and better their medical experience. The authors introduced the hospital′s experience in establishing a one-stop multi-functional outpatient service center. This center integrated such departments as outpatient office service, medical insurance office service, and registration & fee payment. Such a " multifunctional post" provided a one-stop service for the patients, hence optimizing the workflow for creating a convenient and fast outpatient service.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to look into caregivers who took care of their demented elderly family members in an effort to find out what types of services they actually called for and how to make a diagnosis of demented elderly people, provide treatment to them and make an intervention for their families at the same time. METHODS: The subjects in this study were 61 psychiatrists, neurologists and rehabilitation doctors who were in charge of demented elderly people, and they were members of the Korean Geriatrics Society and Korean Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. RESULTS: As for interest in helping caregivers for demented elderly people get rid of their stress, 45.9 percent (28 doctors) of the medical personnels investigated answered they tended to have lots of interest in that. To get them to dispel their stress, they conducted education (13 doctors), offered supportive treatment and encouragement (24 doctors) or provide mental treatment and encouragement (24 doctors) or provide mental treatment or medication if necessary (8 doctors). CONCLUSION: Medical intervention should be carried out to alleviate the behavioral and psychological symptoms of the elderly with dementia to help their caregivers not to be under pressure. Their stress should be managed in a systematic manner according to the dementia grade of patients they look after. A sort of one-stop service network should be built to lend assistance to main caregivers, and the government should set up a family support policy for them.
Subject(s)
Aged , Humans , Caregivers , Dementia , Diagnosis , Education , Geriatric Psychiatry , Geriatrics , Psychiatry , RehabilitationABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to look into caregivers who took care of their demented elderly family members in an effort to find out what types of services they actually called for and how to make a diagnosis of demented elderly people, provide treatment to them and make an intervention for their families at the same time. METHODS: The subjects in this study were 61 psychiatrists, neurologists and rehabilitation doctors who were in charge of demented elderly people, and they were members of the Korean Geriatrics Society and Korean Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. RESULTS: As for interest in helping caregivers for demented elderly people get rid of their stress, 45.9 percent (28 doctors) of the medical personnels investigated answered they tended to have lots of interest in that. To get them to dispel their stress, they conducted education (13 doctors), offered supportive treatment and encouragement (24 doctors) or provide mental treatment and encouragement (24 doctors) or provide mental treatment or medication if necessary (8 doctors). CONCLUSION: Medical intervention should be carried out to alleviate the behavioral and psychological symptoms of the elderly with dementia to help their caregivers not to be under pressure. Their stress should be managed in a systematic manner according to the dementia grade of patients they look after. A sort of one-stop service network should be built to lend assistance to main caregivers, and the government should set up a family support policy for them.
Subject(s)
Aged , Humans , Caregivers , Dementia , Diagnosis , Education , Geriatric Psychiatry , Geriatrics , Psychiatry , RehabilitationABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Asan Medical Center ran a fully automated outpatient laboratory to serve outpatient departments with a rapid turnaround time (TAT; one hour from reception to reporting) for frequently requested test items and thus to make `one stop service' possible. As the number of samples increased, the TAT gradually became longer and eventually showed over one hour for almost all items. METHODS: In October 1998, reorganization of the outpatient laboratory took place. Newly introduced were a priority system for samples, a plasma separate tube instead of the serum separate tube, an on-line simultaneous sample reception system at the time of sampling, and a real-time monitoring system for TAT. RESULTS: With the sample priority system, samples processed for one stop service were 61.0% (476 priority samples out of 780 total samples) for routine hematology, 59.2% (527 out of 890) for routine chemistry, 40.1% (122 out of 304) for urinalysis, 43.2% (89 out of 206) for coagulation tests, and 47.9% (75 out of 157) for diabetic tests. We monitored samples processed as `one stop service' with the real time monitoring system for TAT; among the samples processed as such, 80.1% of rou-tine hematology, 91.9% of routine chemistry, 99.5% of urinalysis, 92.6% of coagulation tests, and 97.6% of diabetic tests showed TAT less than one hour. Average TAT, from the specimen acquisition to the reporting, decreased dramatically after introduction of the system. Average TAT of routine hematology decreased to 53.9 minutes, routine chemistry to 54.6 minutes, urinalysis to 35.2 minutes, coagulation tests to 46.6 minutes, and diabetic tests to 31.9 minutes. And the patient satisfaction index for the outpatient laboratory rose 15% from 81% to 96%. CONCLUSIONS: The outpatient laboratory of AMC shortened the TAT substantially without sacrificing quality and fully met the needs of patients and clinicians after reorganization.