Edition April 2025

In November 2024, Edenvale Regional Hospital in Gauteng achieved a groundbreaking milestone by winning the prestigious Batho Pele Innovator of the Year Award at the National Batho Pele and Innovation Awards. The innovative “Speedy Q” system was spearheaded by the hospital’s Pharmacy Manager Rudzani Negondeni.

The system was designed to address the challenge of long queues at the pharmacy, which were lead- ing to growing frustration for both patients and staff members.

This posed a significant challenge for Negondeni, who joined the hospital as a pharmacist in 2012 and was promoted to her current role in 2019.

In an interview with Public Sector Manager magazine, the Pharmacy Manager explained that, faced with a shortage of resources and no option to hire additional staff, she was forced to think creatively and find innovative solutions.

“ I had to think out of the box and that is how Speedy Q system started,” she recalled.

The innovation, rolled out in the hospital in 2022, has led to a remarkable 78% reduction in waiting times. Patients who previously waited an average of three hours now spend only about 17 minutes on a queue. With the Speedy Q system, patients are grouped into four categories based on their specific needs – including priority patients such as the elderly, pregnant women, babies, those who are severely ill and patients living with disabilities, acute and express prescriptions, new chronic prescriptions and chronic repeat prescriptions. Each category is assigned a dedicated window, where a pharmacist and pharmacy assistant manage the queue.

Pharmacist Rudzani Negondeni won the Batho Pele Innovator of the Year Award for creating Speedy Q, a system that reduces patient waiting times.

Winning formular

Thanks to the award-winning innovation, the team can now serve between 300 to 500 patients daily.

“To be honest, when we came up with the innovation, it was not to win an award, we did not even want to enter the competition,” Negondeni said.

“When we went to the ceremony, we did not anticipate that we would win. It was our first time entering, and when they announced our name as the winner, I was shocked.”

She said the win served as motivation for the team to keep working harder and prioritising the interests of the patients.

“It is a big deal for us. The award almost always goes to hospitals in the Western Cape, so for Gauteng to win, it was really motivating for us to keep innovating.”

Beyond the local recognition, the success of Speedy Q has opened doors to new opportunities. Last year, Negondeni presented the system at the 82nd FIP World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Cape Town, where it garnered international interest and admiration.

“Our abstract appeared first in the conference journal, and this year, we have been invited to Denmark to benchmark and see what we can implement from their practices.”

Beyond the scope

While the Speedy Q system began as a pharmacy queue management tool, it has evolved far beyond its original purpose.

Negondeni explained that the hospital’s technology department, which had previously been struggling with audits, was able to achieve a perfect score of 100% in their audit after implementing the housekeeping protocols developed through Speedy Q.

“They even did better than us, our pharmacy achieved 98%,” said Negondeni, beaming with pride.

The success of the Speedy Q system has inspired other public hospitals across the province to adopt similar innovations.

“We are working with other hospitals in the province, helping them implement this innovation at their facilities,” Negondeni said.

Career path

This aligns with the pharmacist’s passion for helping others, as she describes pharmacy as her true calling.

“I love helping patients, and I am so passionate about my work.”

After graduating from Sefako Makgatho Health Science University in 2005, Negondeni worked as a pharmacist at sever- al hospitals, including Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Nigel Hospital, Bertha Gxowa Hospital, Perinatal HIV Research Unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, Thelle Mogoerane Regional Hospital, and Carletonville District Hospital, before settling at Edenvale Regional Hospital.

With over 15 years of experience in the field, Negondeni remains driven by her desire to improve patient care and delivering best service to those in need. She reflected on a time when her managers told her that hiring additional staff was not an option, noting that instead of discouraging her, it inspired her to be innovative and find a solution that allowed her to do more with less.

“I could have easily said, ‘let us not do anything.’ But I did not give up. I had to persevere and think of a solution,” she reflected.

This aligns with the government's call for employees to be innovative in serving the people of South Africa. The Speedy Q innovation is a reflection of the commitment to serve society's most vulnerable with dignity.