JJ Hospital to improve patient care, turn-around times

Mumbai: Under a pilot programme, the state government-run Sir JJ Group of Hospitals is on the mend with monthly audits to ensure quicker patient turn-around times managed through a stick-and-prod mechanism.

According to Dr Pallavi Saple, Dean, Sir JJ Group of Hospitals, reforms must begin at home. “A pilot project was introduced at the JJ Hospital’s casualty section around 20 days ago to bring about quicker turn-around times, whether the patient is reporting at the hospital door to be treated or discharged immediately or even admitted into one of the wards. For this purpose, a maximum time limit of 30 minutes has been designated. The chief medical officer (CMO) is authorized to act rather than wait for the resident doctor to visit the patient, after 30 minutes have elapsed post primary diagnosis.” Saple is credited with bringing Sangli district from a COVID-19 critical to COVID-19 zero status in 2020.

A database of the turn-around times, from door to discharge or door to ward admittance, is now the prescribed norm for medical caregivers of the casualty section at JJ Hospital. An audit of the timelines of both varieties of patients visiting the casualty ward will be processed every month to benchmark the improvements in efficiency and thereby, patient care.

The project is the outcome of apathy that has been prevailing in the hospital for far too long. Patients arrive into the casualty section and, after a preliminary diagnosis, are found to be waiting for hours on end. Thereafter, the resident doctor pays them a visit and prescribes their next course of medical treatment.

“I have given the CMO the power to make a decision (after 30 minutes) whether to treat and discharge the patient or admit him/ her to the ward for serious medical intervention. Many CMOs are junior medical professionals who used to wait for the resident (senior) doctor to take a call, which resulted in the number of patients piling by the minute. In JJ Hospital, around 1,100 patients get admitted daily, while another 3,000 visit the outpatient department (OPD) on any given day,” she noted.