Malipo Centre and KPCC COC introduce Electronic Queue Management System

By Melody Ajiambo, and Petterson Njogu

Kenyatta National Hospital’s Malipo Centre and KPCC’s Corporate Outpatient Centre (COC), have rolled out the Electronic Queue Management System (EQMS) in a bid to improve service delivery and reduce the turnaround time for clients seeking billing services.

This long-awaited system from Wavetech Company has already shown its numerous benefits.

Malipo Center had a great need for a queue management system because of the large number of clients who are served at the premise.

According to Mr. Wycliffe Litsalisa, Manager, Malipo Centre, an average of 300 clients are served from the various counters at the center per day.

Some of these counters include billing, NHIF preauthorization, debt management unit (DMU), cashpoint, refund, and corporate services. The fact that different counters offer different services was very confusing to the clients, with time wasted trying to locate the right counter.

The EQMS has two ticketing forms; one includes feeding one’s phone number to the ticket kiosk located at the entrance of the facility, selecting the service a client wants, then getting a physical ticket number.

The other one is a virtual form of ticketing that is yet to function- one either scans the QR code displayed or sends a WhatsApp message with KNH002 to the number provided then they get a virtual ticket. These tickets will show the client what counter to go to as they wait for their turn.

One of the benefits of this system is that it has significantly reduced crowding at the service counters. The ticket has a time stamp and date that helps the client follow up on the time taken to get a specific service.

Moreover, the tickets show how many clients are awaiting the same service ahead of them, further reducing confusion. Mr. Litsalisa, quoted earlier, stated that this system has increased the efficiency of the KNH employees stationed at Malipo Center.

“The workflow has greatly improved as clients don’t waste time trying to find the right counter,” he concluded. With this improvement, we hope that clients will be satisfied with the fast service that will be offered at the Malipo center henceforth. At the COC, excessive queuing and waiting are among the leading causes of customer dissatisfaction in hospitals.

More times than not, walk-ins are random and to some extent, chaotic. To avert this, a hospital ought to incorporate a queue management system to automate the process of handling walk-in patients.

Kenyatta Prime Care Centre, alive to this reality, rolled out this technology into full operation on the week of 6th June 2022.

What is a queue management system (QMS)?

This is a patient journey management system that contains a set of tools that help a hospital enhance the patient’s entire visit, from check-in to discharge. It is aimed to maximize effectiveness and efficiency within the waiting area. A case in point is our Corporate Outpatient Centre (COC).

How it works

Once a patient walks into the facility, they are met with a ticketing dispenser kiosk where they key in their phone number; a prompt with all the services pops up and the client selects the required service.

From there, the patient proceeds to the waiting area as they await the integrated intercom to call their unique numbers and proceed to the relevant service area.

The ticket generated contains a unique patient number, the actual

PHOTO |SHAWN OMONDI

Digital feedback tool for customer review after service at KPCC

PHOTO | NICHOLAS WAMALWA

The digital screens provided display the ticket number and the counter where one is to served

“The entire management has worked tirelessly to ensure we have this Queue Management System in place,”

Mr. Simon Too, Marketing and Communication Manager at KPCC

time stamp, the number of patients already in the queue, the time expected to be attended to, and the specific service area where the patient ought to go; it could be at the pharmacy, or dental clinic just to mention a few.

Alternatively, there is also a WhatsApp ticketing option where one is required to scan a QR code, the outcome will be just the same as the one using the ticketing dispensing kiosk. This option will ensure the management of crowding at the dispensing kiosk.

In terms of operational efficiency, real-time tracking of services rendered at each service area will help in improving operational efficiency.

This new integrated system will aid in accurately measuring, controlling, and managing patient flow and the number of patients seen by a specific doctor.

The QMS will also help in gauging patients’ arrival times for their appointments, and waiting times while they are served; we will also be able to access and generate special reports with this data about a specific category of patients.

The system will also unlock untapped potential in terms of patient data that KPCC has never collected before and made use of. For instance, it would be easy to tell the segment of patients who opt for various clinics in terms of age, gender, and where they live among other parameters.

Once this data is collected it will go a long way in enabling the management to get highly relevant insights into the hospital. It will make it easy to identify areas experiencing bottlenecks and how to solve these problems, for example; Why does it take longer to be attended to by the doctor? Why are laboratory results taking longer than expected?

“The entire management has worked tirelessly to ensure we have this Queue Management System in place,” said Mr. Simon Too, Marketing and Communications Manager at KPCC. “We aim to improve the walk-in experience while providing the most expedient turnaround time possible throughout the healthcare delivery processes at our facility,” concluded Mr. Too.

On the same note, the administration will be collecting additional data via the Customer Feedback Unit (CFU). After the patient is served at the facility, on their way out, they can be able to rate the services using the CFU tool. In return, this will help answer questions like, are patients feeling angry or frustrated? What causes the most unhappiness among the patients?

There will be a screen mounted on the walls at COC where numbers read by the intercom will also be displayed there for patients to see while they wait for their turn. Moreover, these TV screens will as well serve as platforms whereby KPCC will be advertising its services (specialized clinics, vaccines, etc.) or running health promotional campaigns.

Soon the system will be introduced at billing (10th floor) and at Zarina Merali Daycare Centre.

In conclusion, this technology is hugely pegged on improving customer experience at KPCC and increasing the quality of services.

A client interacting with the QMS at Malipo Centre

PHOTO | NICHOLAS WAMALWA