Anaesthesia, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine - St Vincent's ...

St.Vincent’s Healthcare Group
Outpatient Department
Departmental Review
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During the year, the following new consultants commenced
clinics in the Outpatient Department:
• Dr. Martin Quinn,Consultant Cardiologist
• Mr. Donal Maguire, Consultant General Surgeon
• Prof.Aongus Curran, Consultant Otolaryngologist /
Head and Neck Surgeon
• Dr. Hugh Mulcahy, Consultant Gastroenterologist
Staff
• Eilish Tennent,Staff Nurse, Retired in September
• Bernadette Howard was promoted to Grade VI Officer as
part of a successful re-grading application in April.
• Ann Mitchell joined the team as Grade IV Officer in
November.
Service Developments/Activities
The Outpatient Committee continued to meet during the year
on a regular basis. Two members from outside the hospital
joined the committee - Ann Brennan,Quality Manager, St.
Michael’s Hospital and Dr. Philip Wiehe, Director of GP Training.
During the year the committee became more involved with the
on-going work for the new project development.The
committee reviews outpatient processes on a regular basis and
changes are often recommended. During the year, the
registration process for Orthopaedic Clinics was improved with
the introduction of a ticketing system.
findings and recommendations were shared with the hospital
management following completion of the study and the final
report is to follow. Some of the recommendations were
implemented soon afterwards which included:
Registration of return patients was discontinued with Friday
morning clinics on a pilot basis.
The Outpatient Department was nominated as the central
point of receipt for all outpatient appointments.A specifi c a l ly
designated post box for all outpatient letters was placed in
the consultants post room to facilitate this process.All
consultants and GP’s were informed of this change.
Departmental Statistics
In the year 2003 a total of 3,680 sessions were held,which was
an increase of 3.6% over the previous year. Total attendances
were 87,235 of which 19,644 were new patients. Overall
attendances showed a decrease of 2.9% from last year.
Future Plans
•Continue to be involved with the accreditation process,
which will focus on the Survey and Quality Improvement
Plans in the coming year.
•Planning for the move to the new building on schedule
for 2005.
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Several staff of the Outpatient Department were involved with
the accreditation process and served as members of different
care teams.
Meridian Productivity Ltd carried out a study in September. The
study was funded by the ERHA and involved a detailed analysis
of the entire outpatient process from referral to discharge.
Clinical,Nursing and Administrative staff co-operated with the
study which involved looking at a total of 122 clinics.Preliminary