June 14, 2011 NEWS RELEASE Four public hospitals are first in region to achieve advanced healthcare-it global standard for use of technology to transform patient care International benchmark ranks SGH, TTSH, NUH, KKH among world s best hospitals in using technology to benefit patients Singapore, Jun 14 - Four Singapore hospitals have become the first public healthcare institutions in the Asia Pacific region to achieve the HIMSS Stage 6 EMR Adoption Model award. Singapore General Hospital (SGH), Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), National University Hospital (NUH), and KK Women s and Children s Hospital (KKH) today received the award from Permanent Secretary for Health, Ms Yong Ying-I, and HIMSS President and CEO, Mr Stephen Lieber, at a ceremony at Raffles Convention Centre. The HIMSS EMR adoption model is an internationally recognised benchmark that measures the use of IT and electronic medical records to transform healthcare to benefit patients. Stage 6, on a scale of 0 to 7, indicates significantly advanced IT capabilities in delivering patient-centric care. With the award, Singapore has become the first country in the region to have several HIMSS Stage 6 hospitals. Only 3.5 per cent of the 5,275 hospitals in US tracked by HIMSS Analytics, have achieved Stage 6. The only other Asian institution rated Stage 6 and 7 is a private hospital, Seoul National University Bundang.
2 Integrated IT Systems The IT networks of the four Stage 6 hospitals are managed by Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS), which oversees IT across all the public healthcare institutions in Singapore. The company is a subsidiary of MOH Holdings. Dr Chong Yoke Sin, IHiS Chief Executive Officer, said: The HIMSS global benchmark ranks our four hospitals among the world s best, and highlights IHiS and the hospitals clear leadership in clinical IT capability in the region. The awards are the result of focused efforts at our healthcare organisations in recent years to harness technology to transform clinical processes, and provide more patientcentric, efficient and cost effective care. Dr Chong added: IHiS has delivered a single electronic medical record (EMR) platform integrating cluster EMRs across all the public hospitals, specialty centres and polyclinics. The award recognizes IHiS and the hospitals work to enable physicians and healthcare staff to directly enter electronic orders, access instantly a patient s medical record across institutions, and view radiology images and lab test results immediately they are known. At SGH, KKH, TTSH and NUH, we have completed installation of the more advanced Stage 6 clinical IT systems, which are now being implemented at other institutions. Today, doctors at these hospitals input medication orders directly into the patients bedside monitors, aided by information that help ensure correct doses, and prevent drug interaction and allergies. Pharmacists no longer need to decipher handwriting, and automated robots dispense accurate individual doses of medication.
3 When serving medicine, the nurse scans the bar code on the patient s wristband and on the drug, to ensure correct medication and patient safety. The drugs are stored in intelligent cabinets in the wards, which allow pharmacy staff to track medication consumption levels, and reduce wastage from excess stock. Next Stage Dr Chong said: The advanced EMR environment has provided a solid foundation for the next stage of our efforts to transform healthcare. We are now working on expanding patient care beyond hospital walls through technology, and are piloting tele-health hubs, tele-consultations, remote monitoring devices, mobile web applications and smartphone health diaries. These tele-health solutions will enable healthcare staff to extend care remotely to patients at their homes, and between clinic visits. IHiS staff are refining these solutions to ensure easy-to-use, robust systems that can cope with high patient volumes, and integrate seamlessly into clinical workflows. Significant Improvements Mr Ho Khai Leng, Chief Information Officer for National Healthcare Group and National University Health System, said: The four hospitals were among the first in the region to fully implement the closed loop medication management system, which has increased staff productivity and patient safety. At NUH, the system has cut preventable drug allergies to zero since last year. Each pharmacist can now review six times more medication orders, and 98 per cent of the nurses find that the intelligent cabinets help them locate medication more swiftly. Staff in the EMR environment, no longer need to ask patients for the same information repeatedly, or spend time reordering tests. They can instead focus on delivering quality care.
4 SingHealth Group Chief Information Officer, Mr Benedict Tan, said: The IT systems have facilitated significant improvements in care quality. Doctors and caregivers, with ready access to comprehensive information and faster test results, can make more timely treatment decisions, and collaborate more easily with colleagues on the patient s care. The EMR system has also provided a wealth of scientifically rigorous data, and SGH for instance, has begun analysing them in research to improve patient care. Dr Chong added that the successful EMR implementation across the public healthcare sector, and the Stage 6 ratings, were due to the strong leadership and staff commitment at the hospitals to harness IT to create the best patient outcomes possible. The initiative involved IHiS technical staff working with healthcare personnel across specialties, to re-examine and overhaul entire workflows to ensure highly efficient and seamless clinical IT processes. They also helped train the caregivers to use the new IT tools safely and effectively. Committee for Asia HIMSS Analytics today launched its Asian operations and appointed IHiS CEO, Dr Chong, as Co-Chair of its Senior Executive Advisory Committee for Asia. The committee aims to share best practices in healthcare-it technology with Asian hospitals, and help them plan and benchmark their use of technology to improve healthcare for patients.. For media enquiries and interviews, please contact: Ida Lim Corporate Affairs Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS) DID: +65-6594 1697 HP: +65-9106 3782 Email: ida.lim@ihis.com.sg
5 About Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS) IHiS is a healthcare-it leader, transforming patient care through excellence in technology. Managing highly integrated systems and IT expertise across Singapore s public healthcare sector, its over 700 professionals support more than 30,000 healthcare users at nine acute care hospitals, 17 specialty centres and 18 polyclinics. A wholly-owned subsidiary of MOH Holdings, IHiS architects, governs and manages the IT performance of systems for clinical, business and healthcare analytics across the six public healthcare clusters. It has been instrumental in achieving the seamless integration of electronic medical records spanning all the clusters care settings. IHiS is at the forefront of innovation, creating robust IT solutions to drive new benchmarks in quality care. For more information please visit www.ihis.com.sg About Singapore General Hospital (SGH) Singapore General Hospital, a member of Singapore Health Services, is the public sector's flagship hospital. Established in 1821, SGH is Singapore's largest acute tertiary hospital and national referral centre offering a comprehensive range of clinical specialties and clinical support services in the region with 1,500 acute beds and about 500 specialists. Annually, 70,000 patients are admitted to the hospital and 700,000 patients attend outpatient clinics. For more information please visit www.sgh.com.sg About Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) TTSH is one of Singapore s largest multi-disciplinary hospitals with more than 160 years of pioneering medical care and development. The hospital has 36 clinical and allied health departments, 15 specialist centres and is powered by more than 6,000 healthcare staff. TTSH sees over 2,000 patients at its specialist clinics and some 460 patients at its emergency department every day. TTSH is part of the National Healthcare Group, providing holistic and integrated patient care. With a strong quality culture steeped in patient safety, TTSH constantly challenges itself to provide faster, better, cheaper and safer care for patients. To achieve this, the hospital keeps abreast and believes in investing in its staff, facilities, medical technology and system improvements. In recognition of its commitment to excellent patient care and its comprehensive range of quality healthcare services, TTSH has been awarded the ISO 9001 certification and the prestigious Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation. For more information, please visit www.ttsh.com.sg. Follow us at TTSH.fbadd.me.
6 About National University Hospital (NUH) NUH is a tertiary specialist hospital and major referral centre for a wide range of medical, surgical and dental specialties including Cardiology, Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Oncology, Ophthalmology, Paediatrics and Orthopaedic Surgery. With combined resources from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Faculty of Dentistry, and as a member of the National University Health System, the NUH is poised to meet the healthcare needs of patients, train future generations of doctors more effectively, and help develop solutions to healthcare problems through research. The NUH was the first Singapore hospital to receive the Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation, an international stamp for excellent clinical practices in patient care and safety. In 2007, the NUH was chosen by the Singapore Ministry of Health to develop the two new national specialist centres, the National University Heart Centre and the National University Cancer Institute to meet the growing needs for cardiac and cancer treatments. For more information please visit: www.nuh.com.sg. About KK Women s And Children s Hospital (KKH) KK Women s and Children s Hospital (KKH) has evolved, since its founding in 1858, into a regional leader in Obstetrics, Gynaecology, Paediatrics and Neonatology. Today, the 830-bed JCI accredited hospital is a referral centre providing tertiary services to manage complex conditions in women and children. More than 400 specialists adopt a multi-disciplinary and holistic approach to treatment, and harness the latest innovations and technology for the best medical care possible. As an academic healthcare institution, the Hospital is a major teaching hospital for Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School as well as Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. The Hospital also runs the largest specialist training programme for Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Singapore as well as a highly rated Paediatric Residency Programme accredited by Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education International (ACGME-I). For more information please visit www.kkh.com.sg.