System improvement of medicine delivery service: Case study of traditional Chinese medicine

ABSTRACT

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) hospital is a nursing facility that provides comprehensive Chinese medical services. The hospital provides medicine delivery service for patients who find it inconvenient to wait for medications. From our study on TCM’s medicine delivery service via constructing a customer journey map, four main problems were found: first, non-systematic service requesting steps; second, non-systematic pricing and work distribution; third, redundant and repeated works in the system; and fourth, patients’ uncertain waits for the delivery. These indicated the inefficiency of the delivery. This project therefore aimed to improve the efficiency of TCM’s medicine delivery services by implementing three improvements: first, improving the database system by providing an address recording web application with geolocation; second, connecting hospital personnel’s work with patients by developing web applications which include medicine delivery function for patients, delivery officers and administrators; and finally, creating an advertisement poster for the medicine delivery service which includes description for patients of the standard steps for requesting delivery. After implementing the solution, usability and patient satisfaction level testing were conducted to ensure the applications’ usability and the system’s efficiency. As a result, the applications increased the efficiency of medicine delivery and users’ satisfaction level.

KEYWORDS:

• healthcare technology
• healthcare management
• efficiency improvement
• medicine delivery service
• traditional Chinese medicine
• Chinese medical services

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Arisara Jiamsanguanwong

Arisara Jiamsaguanwong is an assistant professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. She received her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Management from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2013. Her current research interests include usability engineering; human factor and ergonomics; system improvement; service support technology, and human-system integration.

Pattarapa Tientrakul

Pattarapa Tientrakul received her bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering from Chulalongkorn University in 2019. Her research interests include service system design and improvement; user experience research; and healthcare management.

Fuanglada Sookseng

Fuanglada Sookseng received her bachelor’s in industrial engineering from Chulalongkorn University in 2019. Her research interests include service system design and improvement; user experience research; and digital transformation

Chayapol Ophaswongse

Chayapol Ophaswongse is a research assistant at Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. He received his bachelor’s in industrial engineering from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. His research interests include service system design and improvement; digital transformation; and organizational and people management.

Oran Kittithreerapronchai

Oran Kittithreerapronchain is an assistant professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. In addition to the traditional industrial and systems engineering, his research interests include large scale optimization, warehousing management, supply chain management, and computational algorithms.