Authors: (including presenting author): :
Wong WY(1), Wu SFE(1), Tse JWY(1), Wan PKT(1), Lau TF(1), Wong LLH(1)
Affiliation: :
(1) Information Technology and Health Informatics Division, Hospital Authority Head Office
Keyword 1: :
Electronic enrolment
Keyword 2: :
Service re-engineering
Keyword 3: :
Public flatform
Keyword 4: :
Collaboration
Introduction: :
The paper-based annual enrolment has been practiced since 1995. Around 600,000 enrolment forms were processed annually between schools, students, parents and health service providers. The heavily involved manual handling was labour intensive, time-consuming, prone to errors, and environmentally unsustainable.
Objectives: :
This study presents a novel system designed to digitalize the student enrolment process and enhance the overall experience for the entire primary and secondary student population and schools in Hong Kong.
Methodology: :
E-enrolment system was designed to re-engineer and digitalize the annual paper enrolment process. Collaborative work among key stakeholders, health service providers, schools, parents, and management to formulate practical requirements and technical solutions. E-enrolment form and school portal incorporated technologies that support high-volume user traffic, minimize security risks, protect data privacy, support OTP verification and structured addresses entry. It facilitated close process monitoring, data management and client identification. Upon successful pilot run in September 2024, full implementation was achieved in September 2025.
Result & Outcome: :
In pilot run, 67 schools with 43,000+ students were invited. Over 25,000 students submitted E-enrolment forms, demonstrating feasibility with public’s receptivity and successful process transformation. The pilot results and stakeholders’ feedback were carefully analyzed for system enhancement. During full launch, promising utilization figures were observed:
•1076 participating schools
•Over 460,000 enrolment applications were received during E-enrolment period
•7.5 minutes on average recorded to complete an enrolment form Traditional enrolment process took weeks for service users to handle physical forms involving numerous transferals and data entry. Automated processing of electronic submissions from parents and schools was entirely paperless, saving 70 trees and estimated 1,250 man-days saved every year. Parents could input students' demographics and health conditions effortlessly while facilitating service providers’ workflow. Good-quality structured data collected promotes data integrity and allows data sharing across systems. Surge of public enquires were supported. Expected limitations on changing human behavior on workflow, E-readiness among users varies and technical issues. This project benefited multiple stakeholders and demonstrated the potential of E-enrolment as a public-facing mobile-friendly and multi-dimensional platform. The re-engineered enrolment process enhanced efficiency and data quality, protected data privacy, reduced errors and promoted sustainability. Communication with other systems yielded additional benefit such as supporting government initiatives e.g. eHealth Registration. Leaving rooms for improvement, the system demonstrated its effectiveness, stability, usability, and its potential for extension to other services and health initiatives that engages the public.
