Singapore, 24 November 2008 - It is the year 2010. Patients who need treatment at any hospitals, specialty centres, and polyclinics under SingHealth, no longer have to carry folders containing hardcopy medical data like laboratory test results, hospitalisation summaries, and radiology images for review. Instead, their doctors are able to readily access and view such data stored digitally on SingHealth’s enhanced electronic medical records (EMR) system.

This means that patients can move seamlessly across the care continuum for treatment, without duplication of tests and scans; while doctors can have a single, comprehensive and timely online view of patients’ medical data, enabling better clinical decision-making.

This vision of tomorrow’s healthcare will come to pass, when SingHealth successfully completes a major three-year upgrade of its existing EMR infrastructure.

To realise its commitment to deliver even better, safer integrated care and improve clinical outcomes for patients, SingHealth sees the need to work continuously at elevating its organisational capabilities.

Recognising that technology is a critical platform that allows for the delivery of such high quality healthcare, it therefore embarked on a major exercise to upgrade its existing EMR infrastructure, integrating the disparate systems across the entire group. The three-year exercise is aptly named “Mission for Improving Clinical Outcomes” (MICO).

“MICO is not just a mere technology upgrading exercise. It is a clinical transformation, enabling our doctors and healthcare staff to make better clinical decisions, reduce errors in work processes, and importantly, provide consistent care across our institutions. This is necessary as our patients do not see our institutions as distinct entities, and we want to ensure that their care flows seamlessly from one location to another,” said Dr Low Cheng Ooi, Co-Chairman of the MICO Project Steering Committee, who is also Chairman, Medical Board, Changi General Hospital (CGH).

The first milestone for MICO was achieved on 25 October, when SingHealth conducted a massive migration of its existing EMR platform to the new Sunrise Clinical Manager (SCM) 5.0 solution by Eclipsys, a leading clinical software provider based in Atlanta, United States of America. The new platform will provide SingHealth with the ability to optimise and standardise clinical workflows across its 9 institutions and provide a unified patient record, capturing clinical information from the moment the patient enters an institution to the moment of discharge, through to continued care in an outpatient setting.

This migration sets the foundation for SingHealth to be a step closer to supporting the Health Ministry's bid to build a national Electronic Health Records system for every Singaporean, thus realising the overall goal of "One Patient. One Record".

Close on the heels of the successful migration, SingHealth will keep up the pace by rolling out major components of MICO in the months ahead.

Doctors in CGH will be the first in the group to use the Computerised Physician Order Entry (CPOE) system in December. They can place clinical orders such as radiology or laboratory tests and outpatient medication prescriptions electronically, via customised clinical order sets. Doctors will not have to fill up tedious physical order forms, giving them ease and speed in consultation. Of greater significance is the reduction in errors, as the proverbial illegible doctors’ handwriting is eliminated from the process and built-in decision support mechanisms allow pharmacists and nurses to cross check the orders. Experience elsewhere showed that ordering electronically reduces error and raises the safety level for patients.

By April next year, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital will implement the Closed Loop Medication Management (CLMM) system, allowing a common view of inpatients’ medication information at each point of care. Aside from being able to better manage workflows in dispensing and administering medication, the embedded decision support mechanisms with bar-code technology will enable pharmacists and nurses to employ the “five rights” of medication: right drug, right dose, right route, right time, and right patient. This ensures the integrity of the medication process, thus reducing the potential for avoidable medical errors.

“Many work processes do not impact doctors alone, but involve other care providers like nurses, pharmacists and other allied health staff. CPOE and CLMM will allow us to streamline and integrate these processes, and shift the focus from a doctor-based approach to a team-based, multi-disciplinary approach in managing our patients. They form the building blocks for SingHealth to provide better integrated and coordinated care for our patients,” said Dr Wong Yue Sie, Co-Chairman of the MICO Project Steering Committee, who is also Chairman of Singapore General Hospital’s Division of Ambulatory and Clinical Support Services.

The group-wide implementation of all MICO components is expected to be completed by the last quarter of 2010.

MICO is a major undertaking that will touch almost every step of the care delivery process in SingHealth. More than three hundred healthcare and IT staff are involved in the planning and execution of this EMR upgrade, while all involved in the care of patients have undergone training to familiarise with and maximise the use of the new tools.

“This is a good showcase of how SingHealth harnesses technology to improve patient care delivery. Its scale and complexity require the collective effort and teamwork of clinician champions, the IT team, and our technology partner, Eclipsys. In line with the software upgrade, it is timely for us to also look into giving our hospital equipment a technological facelift,” said Dr Chong Yoke Sin, Group Chief Information Officer, SingHealth.

It is a long journey ahead, but with all hands on deck, SingHealth is well on its way to achieving its mission.

SingHealth is the largest healthcare group in Singapore, offering a complete range of multi-disciplinary and integrated medical care. The group consists of 3 Hospitals, 5 National Specialty Centres, and a network of 9 polyclinics. We have a faculty of internationally qualified medical specialists and are also well equipped with advanced diagnostic and treatment medical technology. We are dedicated to providing quality healthcare that is affordable and accessible to our patients. By pursuing excellence in our 3 pillars of Service, Education, and Research, we aim to be the trusted leader in healthcare for our patients, partners, staff, and the community.