Innovation

This innovation is specially invented for aged patients, disabled patients, and the patients unable to come to the clinic during opening hours. However, the doctor will not do a video diagnosis if the patient’s condition is an emergency since the doctor is not able to diagnose the patient physically. Receiving the video-diagnosis, the patient still needs to make an appointment online and the available time sessions will be the opening hours and five more hours to 11 p.m. However, the video-diagnosis will only take about 10 to 15 minutes as same as the physical patient diagnosing time. Throughout the video diagnosis, the doctor will listen to the patient’s inquiry and description of their conditions. Then, the doctor is more likely to give medical advice rather than giving a prescription because medicine use is a serious matter that the doctor needs to see the patient physically. For example, this innovation will best serve the patients with a malnutrition condition so the doctor can give a meal plan instead of a prescription based on what the patients told to the doctor. On the other hand, if the patients are not certain about their signs or symptoms, the patient can have a video call inquiry to discuss with the doctor whether they should come to the clinic in person. Since these medical activities can be done online, there are more time slots for patients who need to come to the clinic.

Inspiration

Annie, the registered nurse, has a friend from China who talked to Annie about the online doctor-patient inquiry in China. Therefore, Annie suggested the idea to Cranbourne Stawell Clinic because the clinic is very well-known in the Cranbourne area and some patients are not able to book an appointment. Annie realized the video-call diagnosis can save the patient’s traffic time and some patients do not have to be absent from their work.

For good health and well-being, Annie said, “We aim to provide the same quality and level of medical services to every individual within the community - as many as possible.” And Annie also added that “the video diagnosis will benefit more patients even though they are not able to come to the clinic, but they still can receive medical care.” Overall, this strategy will cover more patients in the community regardless of the time and distance constraints.

Overall impact

There are more patients benefiting from this innovation because the patients have more time sessions available and some patients can receive health care at home.

In both the short-term and long-term, the community can benefit from distance-free medical services and reduce the carbon emissions from the patients driving to the clinic.

Business benefit

After practicing the video-diagnosis, there is a significant increase in the numbers of patients from video-diagnosis. In fact, there were a lot of potential patients who benefited from the video-diagnosis and became part of the loyal customer base. On the other hand, more patients such as retired patients and aged patients do not have to spend time waiting at the clinic because half of the existing patients decided to choose video-diagnosis. In overall, this innovation solves the distance and time constraints so that more patients are willing to choose Cranbourne Stawell Clinic.

Social and environmental benefit

With the increasing numbers of patients, Stawell clinic hired a new doctor who works the majority of the time on video-diagnosis and refers patients to the clinic if necessary. Also, the clinic has more available sessions for vaccinations which can only be done in the clinic. This innovation creates job opportunities because Stawell may need to hire more doctors and nurses due to the increasing numbers of customers. Also, more patients can have health care in the clinic on time when the other patients without serious matters can inquire online.

Besides, the patients’ case reports will be saved in the clinic database and patients can retrieve their reports online. If the patients do not have access to electronics or the internet, the patients will have their reports in hard copy. This is to help the doctor to easily refresh the memory of the returned patients when running a video diagnosis. Additionally, it helps to reduce paper use for sustainability.

This innovation enables more patients to get medical care each day as well as demonstrating the concept of Sustainable Development Goal 3 – Good Health and Well-being. The United Nations mentions this goal is ‘Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development’. In fact, the innovation is contributing to this goal and benefits the community not only all ages but also at all times.

Reference: Health - United Nations Sustainable Development. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/health/

Interview

Annie Lau, Registered Nurse