APSAA 亞太永續行動獎(Asia-Pacific Sustainability Action Awards )-Sustainability Action Award SDG3:Gold
Kaohsiung Municipal Siaogang Hospital 高雄市立小港醫院(委託財團法人私立高雄醫學大學經營)
Advocate Long-Term Care 2.0 for Rehabilitation Care Model of Multidisciplinary Swallowing Disorder
As long as patients have the opportunity to eat by mouth, that is the purpose of our existence, the core value of the Multidisciplinary Swallowing Reconstructive Center at Kaohsiung Municipal Siaogang Hospital, and the goal of the team members.
As we all know, Taiwan has the highest rate of aging in the world, and the resulting health care problems are impacting society nowadays. According to official data, there are about 200,000 people using nasogastric tubes in Taiwan every year, and 1 in 10 elderly people over the age of 65 has a mild swallowing disorder. In order to respond to the needs of society and fulfill the value of public welfare, we have sent 30 members from different departments to Japan since 2016 to learn chewing and swallowing related care techniques. On June 20, 2018, the first "Multidisciplinary Swallowing Reconstructive Center" was established in southern Kaohsiung, where medical resources are relatively scarce. It is also equipped with the first dedicated examination room in Taiwan. At the beginning, the team members have been working diligently to establish standardized care processes, not only for clinical care, but also for community-based health screening, and to expand talent training in schools and nursing facilities. Through the team's efforts, more than 10,000 people have been screened, and more than 500 people have been trained in various types of medical care, thus increasing the rate of nasogastric tube removal, reducing the incidence of aspiration pneumonia, and helping many patients successfully escape the plight of "life with an elephant's nose".
In addition, the team at the Multidisciplinary Swallowing Reconstructive Center has developed a unique medical treatment with innovative value and continues to refine it in line with the philosophy of "I-CARE" advocated by the hospital. In the hospital, in addition to organizing a cross-disciplinary, multi-specialty team, the hospital provides complete care from hospitalization to discharge. In addition, we have established a special Chewing and Swallowing Difficulties Outpatient Clinic to meet the needs of the public and save patients' time. We have also developed a series of test solutions, meals, and tasty care foods for screening, and we have developed the first patented jelly in Taiwan for both training and eating to make training more effective. Outside of the hospital, we not only work with universities and technical colleges to develop curriculums to educate students but also actively cooperate with long-term care institutions and medical facilities to train all types of workers to improve the quality of care and benefit more patients. This successful experience has not only spread throughout Taiwan but also to people in remote areas, outlying islands, and disadvantaged groups. It has also been selflessly shared with foreign friends, attracting medical institutions from Vietnam, Japan, and China to hold video conferences or visit the hospital, successfully expanding the soft power of medical diplomacy.
Through the continuous efforts of our team members, we have been awarded the 2020 and 2022 National Innovation Awards, the 2022 Symbol of National Quality (SNQ) Silver Award, and the Taiwan Sustainability Action Award (TSAA) Gold Award in recent years. We have also received funding from the government for a number of projects. This is not only a recognition of our team's past achievements but also our motivation and responsibility to keep improving.
In the past three years, we have followed the planned schedule: the main goal in 2021 is to cultivate talents and promote experience; the main goal in 2022 is to expand and deepen education; and in 2023, the goal is to optimize implementation standards and promote industry-academia-research cooperation. Innovative research has been conducted to incorporate artificial intelligence and create an information integration platform to achieve a complete mastication and swallowing care network. In the future, we will focus on "Precision Innovation, Health and Sustainability" and work with our partner schools to promote the cultivation of talents and teachers through the use of smart technology to achieve the goal of unity in teaching, examination, training, and application. By cooperating with medical-related public, academic, and professional associations for on-the-job education and corporate personnel training, we hope to facilitate the enhancement of clinical skills. Joining with industry and research institutes, we will develop innovative products with high quality and low cost to realize the vision of sustainable management. The three together form an innovative mastication and swallowing medical care model 2.0, providing integrated and effective medical care services for cases with mastication and swallowing disorders and helping to get rid of the "elephant nose life" and regain a happy life of "eating by mouth".
As we all know, Taiwan has the highest rate of aging in the world, and the resulting health care problems are impacting society nowadays. According to official data, there are about 200,000 people using nasogastric tubes in Taiwan every year, and 1 in 10 elderly people over the age of 65 has a mild swallowing disorder. In order to respond to the needs of society and fulfill the value of public welfare, we have sent 30 members from different departments to Japan since 2016 to learn chewing and swallowing related care techniques. On June 20, 2018, the first "Multidisciplinary Swallowing Reconstructive Center" was established in southern Kaohsiung, where medical resources are relatively scarce. It is also equipped with the first dedicated examination room in Taiwan. At the beginning, the team members have been working diligently to establish standardized care processes, not only for clinical care, but also for community-based health screening, and to expand talent training in schools and nursing facilities. Through the team's efforts, more than 10,000 people have been screened, and more than 500 people have been trained in various types of medical care, thus increasing the rate of nasogastric tube removal, reducing the incidence of aspiration pneumonia, and helping many patients successfully escape the plight of "life with an elephant's nose".
In addition, the team at the Multidisciplinary Swallowing Reconstructive Center has developed a unique medical treatment with innovative value and continues to refine it in line with the philosophy of "I-CARE" advocated by the hospital. In the hospital, in addition to organizing a cross-disciplinary, multi-specialty team, the hospital provides complete care from hospitalization to discharge. In addition, we have established a special Chewing and Swallowing Difficulties Outpatient Clinic to meet the needs of the public and save patients' time. We have also developed a series of test solutions, meals, and tasty care foods for screening, and we have developed the first patented jelly in Taiwan for both training and eating to make training more effective. Outside of the hospital, we not only work with universities and technical colleges to develop curriculums to educate students but also actively cooperate with long-term care institutions and medical facilities to train all types of workers to improve the quality of care and benefit more patients. This successful experience has not only spread throughout Taiwan but also to people in remote areas, outlying islands, and disadvantaged groups. It has also been selflessly shared with foreign friends, attracting medical institutions from Vietnam, Japan, and China to hold video conferences or visit the hospital, successfully expanding the soft power of medical diplomacy.
Through the continuous efforts of our team members, we have been awarded the 2020 and 2022 National Innovation Awards, the 2022 Symbol of National Quality (SNQ) Silver Award, and the Taiwan Sustainability Action Award (TSAA) Gold Award in recent years. We have also received funding from the government for a number of projects. This is not only a recognition of our team's past achievements but also our motivation and responsibility to keep improving.
In the past three years, we have followed the planned schedule: the main goal in 2021 is to cultivate talents and promote experience; the main goal in 2022 is to expand and deepen education; and in 2023, the goal is to optimize implementation standards and promote industry-academia-research cooperation. Innovative research has been conducted to incorporate artificial intelligence and create an information integration platform to achieve a complete mastication and swallowing care network. In the future, we will focus on "Precision Innovation, Health and Sustainability" and work with our partner schools to promote the cultivation of talents and teachers through the use of smart technology to achieve the goal of unity in teaching, examination, training, and application. By cooperating with medical-related public, academic, and professional associations for on-the-job education and corporate personnel training, we hope to facilitate the enhancement of clinical skills. Joining with industry and research institutes, we will develop innovative products with high quality and low cost to realize the vision of sustainable management. The three together form an innovative mastication and swallowing medical care model 2.0, providing integrated and effective medical care services for cases with mastication and swallowing disorders and helping to get rid of the "elephant nose life" and regain a happy life of "eating by mouth".