Authors: (including presenting author): :
Lee HC, Wong YL, Cheung WY, Ng KY, Poon SC
Affiliation: :
Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, Prince of Wales Hospital
Keyword 1: :
Patient’s Queueing Time & Intravitreal Therapy
Introduction: :
The Intravitreal Therapy (IVT) of Anti-Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (Anti-VEGF) is currently the golden standard treatment for neovascular age related macular degeneration, macular oedema secondary to diabetes or retinal venous occlusion. Due to the high and ever-increasing incidence and prevalence of the diseases, the IVT service load is tremendous in Eye Centre of Prince of Wales Hospital. This was well reflected in the long queueing time in IVT session in Eye Centre. According to the Corporate Queue Management System (CQMS) report in July 2024, there were only 20% of patients could complete the IVT within one hour and 80% of patients waited for more than 1 hours. Besides, patients were waiting for 79.1 minutes in average. Thus, this project aims to shorten patient’s queuing time for IVT as well as to improve a better patient’s journey.
Objectives: :
1. To shorten patient’s queuing time for IVT on injection day. 2. To enhance smoothness & efficiency of patient flow during the whole process of IVT. 3. To improve staff and patient’s experience for IVT.
Methodology: :
Patients who scheduled IVT appointments for receiving (Anti-VEGF) were included in the project. A total of 5 sessions of IVT were selected during 20 September 2024 to 10 June 2025 under three Out-Patient Appointment System (OPAS) codes after new IVT time slots were implemented. 1. Reallocate IVT time slot by dividing time slot from 30 minutes interval to 15 minutes interval. 2. Redistribute IVT quota from 4 time-slots to 7 time-slots. 3. Minimize IVT redundancy by following the Hospital Authority Head Office (HAHO) policy to adhere the validity of e-Consent from once to 1 year. 4. Implement pre-prescription of anti-VEGF on the date of booking IVT.
Result & Outcome: :
A total of 5 sessions (64 patients) from 20 September 2024 to 10 June 2025 were included in the project. After the time slots reallocation, patients could complete the whole IVT process within 1 hour from 20% increased to 62%. And only 5% of patient needed to be waited more than 1.5 hours and 33% of patients needed to be waited 1 to 1.5 hours. Patients’ waiting time was dramatically decreased to 50.6 minutes in average. Regarding to staffs and patient’s experience impact, the smoothness & efficiency of the IVT workflow enhanced. Though patients queue times for IVT improved, there is still room for improvement in drug prescriptions issue in the future.
