Annual Report 2023

Section of Medical Assistant Management

Yuji Nishizawa,

26 staff and18 part-time staff

Departments: Outpatient scheduling desk, Hospitalization preparation center, Medical certificate drafting, Disease name registration, Radiology reception, Endoscopy center reception, Rehabilitation reception, Physiological examination reception and some outpatient receptions

Introduction

 It is important for medical doctors and staff to work together to practice task shifting and task sharing in order to promote work style reform, and medical assistants (MA) have contributed to this. In 2021, the section of medical assistant management was opened and we have established a system where MA can work across the organization. Currently, it contributes to patient flow management (PFM) from outpatient care to inpatient treatment.

The Team and What We Do

 We implement task shifting for medical doctors and staff to contribute to PFM.

Research Activities

 As the core of outpatient PFM, the Outpatient scheduling desk was set up and a system was built for MA to order doctor appointments, test orders, etc. on doctor’s behalf. Medical doctors no longer need to enter orders in the outpatient department, reducing the burden on doctors and improving outpatient waiting times for patients. Outpatient PFM was established mainly with the outpatient scheduling desk and the admission preparation center
(Fig. 1). One of our hospital's target clinical indicators is the rate of outpatient waiting times of over one hour. The target value was 6% or less, and the target was achieved with an average of 5% in 2023 with an increase in the number of outpatient scheduling desk use cases (Fig. 2). The use of MA contributed to work style reform for medical doctors and improving patient satisfaction.

Figure 1. PFM using the Section of Medical Assistant Management

Figure 2. Number of cases handled at Outpatient scheduling desk

Education

 We have created a unique MA training program that incorporates the lectures necessary for a cancer specialty hospital. After 32 hours of lectures and confirmation of completion, a certificate is issued for the staff. We also implement job rotation to create a system in which employees can hold multiple positions in our department.

Future Prospects

 It is important to continuously develop human resources and improve operational efficiency in order to develop PFM. Cancer hospitals need to respond to the individualization and diversification of treatment, and we plan to further enhance PFM using MA.