The electronic Queue Management System (QMS) implemented at Valelevu Health Centre has been seen a big improvement according, to doctors and patients of the facility.

The QMS was first piloted at Valelevu Health Centre in November, 2016 to address complaints of long waiting times of patients. In some cases it was reported patients left before even being attended to by a health care professional.

The electronic console that doctors use to call patients from the consultation rooms. Photo: Kogo Fujiki

Ministry of Health and Medical Services subdivisional medical officer for Suva, Dr Pablo Romakin said the new system solves issues of the previous manual queue system.

“Before we were just using the manual system – and in the manual system each doctor was assigned different numbers so there was no ‘first come, first serve’ basis,” DrRomakin said.

“Patients say it’s a good system – we have done a short survey and the majority of them like this system. Doctors like the idea as well because it provides less stress to them and less chaos.”

One patient, Aporosa Rageci, 23, who had not visited the hospital in a few months said he was pleasantly surprised with the new queue system.

“It has always been slow and you know this Nasinu area has a biggest population in Suva,” he said.

“Now it’s much more efficient – before all these waiting benches were all full. I was actually going to share a status on Facebook saying how good it is.”

Other patients who were waiting at the clinic described the new electronic system as ‘better’ and ‘more helpful’ than the previous manual system.

How it works

The QMS kicks into action as soon as the patient reaches the reception where a number is printed for them.

There are consoles in each consultation room with doctors pressing the numbers to call the patient.

The numbers of the patient’s next-in-line are shown on two large television screens for all patients to see, much like electronic systems used in banks and other businesses.

Dr Romakin said: “We didn’t have evidence of how long these patients were waiting, so this is one way of measuring the time they come, to the time they are seen by the doctor.

“The doctors say there’s still a lot of patients, but they can prioritise more and it also measures their service time – so we can actually monitor this – the doctor’s performance.”

Edited by Ranoba Baoa

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