The advantage of being able to modify the content of the medical questionnaire in the medical record. The medical questionnaire becomes a SOAP's "S" as it were! This convenience is worth experiencing.
[Sendai Gastroenterology and Endoscopy Clinic Izumi Chuo Hospital | Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology]
Sendai Gastroenterology and Endoscopy Clinic Izumi Chuo is a gastroenterology clinic located in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. It is currently the clinic with the highest growth rate in Japan, having performed 4,000 endoscopies a year in its first year of operation.
We spoke with the director, Dr. Yamaoka, and his staff about the background of the introduction of the Melp Web-based Medical Questionnaire and the unique way of using it.
- What made you decide to implement Melp?
I was receiving management consulting from Funai Sogo Research Institute, and the person in charge introduced me to Melp.
- How did you feel when you received a demonstration from Me lp?
I intuitively felt that this tool would improve the stress of using paper questionnaires.
- Did you have any concerns that the web-based questionnaire would not be used as much by the elderly?
Of course, we did. However, the concept of our clinic is to "provide working people with high-quality endoscopy. Our target audience is the "working generation," so we have a very good relationship with Melp's questionnaire.
It is also very popular among patients. For example, it is possible to enter a questionnaire even when making an outpatient appointment on the web. That way, the time spent in the clinic will definitely be reduced. Once you are at the reception desk, you don't have to answer the questionnaire to be called in for a consultation.
Nowadays, some people feel that it is easier to type on a smartphone than to write on a piece of paper.
Well, in reality, we use paper questionnaires for those who cannot use web questionnaires or who have psychological resistance.
- When you actually used Melp, how was the ease of use?
It is very convenient.
The content of the medical questionnaire that the patient fills out is directly inputted into the electronic medical record as text information, so if corrections are needed, they can be made on the screen of the electronic medical record, which is excellent. The content of the medical questionnaire is not always accurate, right?
It is easy to copy and paste the contents of the medical interview into the "S" column of the medical record. It would be so much easier if your medical questions could be turned into "S" almost directly.
In the case of paper medical questionnaires, the contents of the questionnaire are captured in the electronic medical record as "image data". When viewing the data, you have to click and open the patient's questionnaire. This is inefficient.
- Thank you. Can you tell us how we can improve the Melp?
What would you like to see improved?
There is nothing in particular that I would like to see improved. We are satisfied with it.
Although this is a matter of hospital operation, the content of the medical interview has not been changed drastically since the beginning of the business. I feel that if we can increase the opportunities to discuss and improve the content of the medical interview with the staff and other doctors, we will be able to further improve the accuracy of the medical interview.
- By the way, I think it was very difficult at first to create the questionnaire.
It was indeed difficult at first.
The Questionnaire Market system helped me in this regard. You can refer to the questionnaires of other clinics. This is great. "It's really hard to go from zero to one. However, by using "Questionnaire Market", you can use the questionnaires used by other clinics as a template and arrange them for your own clinic. "It was really helpful to not have to start from zero.
We also need to return the favor we received, and our medical questionnaires are now available in the "Medical Questionnaire Market".
Interview with the staff below
- Thank you for taking the time to talk to us today. Can you tell us about the improvements you've made to Melp?
Sometimes there are patients who don't fill in their address or phone number for their first visit, and it sometimes takes a long time for the patient verification.
Is it possible to make the address and phone number mandatory for first-time patients only?
- You can, and we will set it up for you.
Thank you. The other thing is the patient search, currently it is a name search and a date of birth search, and I think the date of birth search is only for the Western calendar, but I would like it to support the Japanese calendar search as well.
The date of birth on the insurance card submitted to us is in Japanese calendar, so when we search for a patient in the web medical interview by date of birth, we have to convert it to Western calendar in our mind. Of course, I can also search by patient name.