Singapore - Singapore General Hospital (SGH) will introduce an e-health record and management system by the end of 2009

Citation

(2009), "Singapore - Singapore General Hospital (SGH) will introduce an e-health record and management system by the end of 2009", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 22 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2009.06222dab.006

Singapore - Singapore General Hospital (SGH) will introduce an e-health record and management system by the end of 2009

Article Type: News and views From: International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Volume 22, Issue 4

The Community Care Management Solution (CCMS) will be accessible to all wards and polyclinics

Keywords: E-health record systems, Healthcare information management, Effective management, Quality healthcare

Offered through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, the solution allows healthcare providers to track patients’ progress from the time of admission through step-down facilities in the community.

For the first time, complete patients’ health information that can be found only in case notes can be shared with caregivers across the healthcare continuum from inpatient wards to specialist outpatient clinics to polyclinics and community care settings as a patient’s condition improves.

Ng Han Seong, Chairman of SGH Medical Board said, “The responsibility of care in the community is shared between hospital specialists, primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, patients and their families. We must leverage on technology and design delivery systems to facilitate effective discharge of care across the healthcare continuum.”

Healthcare providers can use a mobile device, such as a PC or laptop or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), at the point of care to view and update patient records, access test results and instantly share information with other caregivers.

The system had earlier gone through a pilot project involving 200 diabetes patients across four wards, four outpatient clinics, two polyclinics and community care centres.

Apart from allowing patients easy access to their medical records, CCMS also allows patients to receive timely updates and results of their medical tests via an online portal. With the use of monitoring devices, patients will be able to capture vital measurements such as blood glucose levels and upload this information to the system for clinical evaluation.

Lim Swee Hia, Group Director of Nursing, has high hopes for the system: “The adoption of technology to provide accurate and integrated patient information at the point-of-care, whether it is in a hospital, a specialist outpatient clinic, a polyclinic or in patient’s homes, can make a real difference to patient health and will lead the way for Nurses to extend the reach of nursing care beyond the walls of the hospital into the community.”

CCMS will be hosted and managed by SingTel – a local communications group – and offered through SaaS for a monthly subscription fee. The SaaS model will eliminate the need for heavy upfront capital investments and high on-going maintenance costs.

For more information: www.futuregov.net