The healthcare industry has undergone a dramatic shift in the conversation around mental health, which has led Singapore’s healthcare authorities to place a greater emphasis on mental health advocacy and support for primary healthcare workers.
Singapore’s healthcare system continues to be under pressure as more primary and mid-level healthcare workers are exhausted in the fight against the pandemic. Before 2020, the ratios of doctors and nurses per thousand patients were 2.6 and 7.4, respectively. However, just a few months ago, the system was at risk of being “overwhelmed” with resources and healthcare workers. The peak of the pandemic in Singapore over the past few months, along with the challenges posed by an ageing population and rising cost of living, have demonstrated why our healthcare system needs to deliver healthcare in a smarter and more efficient way – which will ease Current issues such as long working hours and the high number of patients in the A&E department.
As the government digitizes the nation’s healthcare system, technology can be used to improve the employee and patient experience. In April last year, the Centre for Medical Assistive and Robotic Technology (CHART), led by Changi General Hospital, the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Singapore Economic Development Board, said automation was one of their focus areas to improve staff productivity, as and by extending human capacity and deliver greater therapeutic precision to improve health and clinical outcomes.
As implied in the strategic plan, the digital solutions of the CHART programme will be supported, partly through automation, to further develop and improve digital services already in play in the country’s healthcare system effect.
Helping Healthcare Services Intelligence Keep Up
Intelligent Automation (IA) Long Term It has since been used by hospitals to solve their common problems. It enables hospitals and clinics to introduce digital workers — artificial intelligence-driven software designed to mimic human roles — to perform rule-based tasks such as appointments and referrals, which can go a long way toward improving operational excellence and patient experience in healthcare facilities HELP.
At the height of the outbreak in April 2020, health authorities had to carry out testing, especially in foreign worker dormitories, where more than 1,000 COVID-19 tests were conducted every day. With the rapid spread of the coronavirus, hospitals are under enormous pressure to quickly register, test and share results online. They need to speed up the process.
To increase the efficiency of this onerous process, the National University Health System (NUHS) utilizes the IA of SS&C Blue Prism in the form of digital workers. Results were immediate, as registration time per test was reduced from two minutes to 30 seconds, saving NUHS 18 hours per day. Laboratory results also arrive faster, enabling NUHS to process more than 27,000 patients per day. Additionally, as a measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 and reduce the burden on stressed healthcare workers, NUHS leveraged IA to build a digital patient portal where patients can take control of their health and remote consultations through a self-service smart portal. NUHS’ IA implementation is a great example of how the technology can automate processes and improve overall operations.
This is not the first time NUHS has improved operational efficiency through IA through SS&C Blue Prism. In 2018, NUHS began automating its back-office functions, including claims processing and billing. Through automation, the organization was able to process billing adjustment requests immediately—a process that used to take three to four days. The use of automation helped NUHS process 75 percent of 40,000 annual billing adjustment requests, which improved the organization’s cash flow, saving an estimated $350,000 over three years. Patients seeking reimbursement from insurers and employers also had a better experience.
Enables healthcare professionals to do more with less
Global pandemic opens avenues And accelerate new ways of working and operating in the healthcare sector. In a Blue Prism survey of more than 400 senior healthcare professionals worldwide, 93% said process automation has accelerated due to COVID-19, with 58% replacing paper documents with electronic equivalents, 57% of respondents took the opportunity to build new automated processes to improve how they interact with patients and other departments. Nearly half (45%) say they have replaced in-person consultations with video conferencing, a practice that is likely to continue for years to come.
In particular, COVID-19 has seen a surge in telemedicine and teleconsultation services, and for the same reason, the demand for these services will continue to surge in the coming years. According to RedSeer Consulting, the online health segment in Southeast Asia is expected to grow tenfold by 2025, with Indonesia and Singapore alone accounting for 50 to 60 percent of the growth.
Clearly, the future of adoption of IA and digital solutions is bright, and the healthcare industry is fertile ground for further deployment to drive greater sustainable healthcare for all. Healthcare organizations are challenged to serve more patients with the same or fewer resources than ever before. By leveraging IA to power heavy processes while improving existing solutions such as telemedicine, Singapore’s healthcare system can not only achieve financial sustainability, but directly address issues surrounding service availability so that doctors and nurses can ultimately free up Make time for attention and care of patients with urgent medical needs.
