Teramoto Kei, Kuwata Shigeki
Tottori University Hospital, Yonago, Japan.
Department of Clinical Information Management, Nara City Hospital, Nara, Japan.
JMIR Form Res. 2022 Apr 21;6(4):e32990. doi: 10.2196/32990.
The greatest stressor for outpatients is the waiting time before an examination. If the patient is able to use their smartphone to check in with reception, the patient can wait for their examination at any location, and the burden of waiting can be reduced.
This study aimed to report the system design and postintroductory outcomes of the Tori RinRin (TR2) system that was developed to reduce outpatient burden imposed by wait times before examination.
The TR2 system was introduced at Tottori University Hospital, a large medical facility that accepts a daily average of 1500 outpatients. The system, which links the hospital's electronic medical record database with patients' mobile devices, has the following functions: (1) GPS-based examination check-in processing and (2) sending appointment notification messages via a cloud notification service. In order to evaluate the usefulness of the TR2 system, we surveyed the utilization rate of the TR2 system among outpatients, implemented a user questionnaire, and polled the average time required for patients to respond to call notifications about their turn.
The 3-month average of TR2 users 9 months after the TR 2 system introduction was 17.9% (14,536/81,066). In an investigation of 363 subjects, the mean examination call message response time using the TR2 system was 31 seconds (median 14 seconds). Among 166 subjects who responded to a user survey, 86.7% (144/166) said that the system helped reduce the burden of waiting time.
The app allowed 17.9% of outpatients at a large medical facility to check in remotely and wait for examinations anywhere. Hence, it is effective in preventing the spread of infection, especially during pandemics such as that of coronavirus disease. The app reported in this study is beneficial for large medical facilities striving to reduce outpatient burden imposed by wait times.
门诊患者面临的最大压力源是检查前的等待时间。如果患者能够使用智能手机在前台办理挂号手续，那么他们可以在任何地点等待检查，从而减轻等待的负担。
本研究旨在报告为减轻门诊患者检查前等待时间所带来的负担而开发的鸟取凛凛（TR2）系统的系统设计和引入后的效果。
TR2系统在鸟取大学医院引入，这是一家大型医疗机构，平均每天接待1500名门诊患者。该系统将医院的电子病历数据库与患者的移动设备相连接，具有以下功能：（1）基于全球定位系统（GPS）的检查挂号处理；（2）通过云通知服务发送预约通知消息。为了评估TR2系统的实用性，我们调查了门诊患者中TR2系统的使用率，实施了用户问卷调查，并统计了患者对轮到自己的呼叫通知做出响应所需的平均时间。
TR2系统引入9个月后，3个月内TR2用户的平均比例为17.9%（14536/81066）。在对363名受试者的调查中，使用TR2系统时，平均检查呼叫消息响应时间为31秒（中位数为14秒）。在166名回复用户调查的受试者中，86.7%（144/166）表示该系统有助于减轻等待时间的负担。
该应用程序使一家大型医疗机构中17.9%的门诊患者能够远程挂号并在任何地点等待检查。因此，它在预防感染传播方面是有效的，尤其是在冠状病毒病等大流行期间。本研究中报告的应用程序对努力减轻门诊患者等待时间所带来负担的大型医疗机构有益。
