With the integration of ICT into its daily operations, Putrajaya Hospital provides quicker and hassle free services with the ease of a click of the mouse or a text message.
At first glance Putrajaya Hospital seems no different from any other government medical facility but the feeling quickly disappears from the very moment patients arrive at the registration counter.
From then on one cannot help but be awed at the services available, at the model hospital that is helping integrate ICT into its daily operations, and in the process of not only making its operations easier, but also providing patients with quicker and hassle free services.
According to Putrajaya Hospital Director Dr Nora’i Mohd Said, the use of ICT in the hospital’s daily operations began immediately after it opened in the year 2000 with the implementation of the Total Hospital Information System (THIS). With THIS, the hospital has been gradually increasing the number of services managed with just a “click of the mouse.”
The system allows staff anywhere in the hospital to access and manage all aspects of patient records and critical care information, manage patient queues at various sections of the hospital as well as monitor medical supplies, beds, operation theatres, the pharmacy, picture archiving (for services like X-rays) and services like radiology, haemodialysis and pharmacy.
Push button convenience: Dr Nora’i showing the SMS Take and Go pharmacy process on a leaflet.
It is also used to access and manage non-clinical information for the Central Sterilisation and Supply Department, dietary orders and material management.
Dr Nora’i said patients’ experience with the use ICT begins as soon as they register – where nurses simply scan their MyKad to gain personal informaton from first timers, while those on follow-up visits are provided with bar-coded appointment cards that are scanned. “We have had some cases of people using fake MyKads to try and get treatment here but they were easily detected thanks to the system,” she said, adding that the hospital had also recently started working on putting on the MyKads any critical illnesses that the holders suffered from and the medication prescribed.
Printed guarantee letters too are a thing of the past for civil servants as government agencies can now key information like the salary scale, ward eligibility and the next of kin of a patient using the eGL system for staff at the hospital to access.
This removes the hassle for recovering patients in collecting the letters from their offices before seeking treatment, she said.
Since April this year, she said, the hospital had implemented a pioneer project with the Public Services Department (PSD) to allow those nearing retirement to have all information including medical benefits they were entitled to on retirement added to their MyKad
.
This information can be quickly and easily accessed by the hospital through a system provided by PSD.
Dr Nora’i said, also in April this year, that the hospital had started a new service which enabled patients to refill their prescriptions without having to come in, register and wait for the medication to be dispensed, thanks to the ‘SMS Take and Go” system.
“All patients have to do is type ‘HPJ UBAT’ and list their name, MyKad number and the date and time they want to collect their medication and send an SMS to 15888 two working days ahead of the pick up date.
“The information is received at the hospital and our staff at the pharmacy will record it and have the prescription ready at that time and date,” she said, adding that the hospital even provided two special parking bays for the patients to stop and pick up their medication from the window counter outside the main building.
She said response to the service had been tremendous and there were 436 patients currently using the service with the numbers growing by about five patients a day as people realise the ease and convenience in refilling their prescriptions.
She said the hospital was also planning to include a drive-in counter in a new wing that would be constructed under the 10th Malaysia Plan for patients who called in or e-mailed their prescription details via the SMS Take and Go system.
Also in the planning is a Pharmacy Home Delivery service that would, at an additional fee, enable patients to have medication sent directly to their homes after placing an order with the hospital, said Dr Nora’i.
She said the hospital was looking at the possibility of getting Pos Malaysia to provide the delivery services and was currently gathering feedback from patients on the idea.
She said the Putrajaya Hospital was also one of six picked for the Malaysia Health Information Exchange system or MyHIX that would enable the participating hospitals to share information and allow patients to seek treatment at any one of them without hassle.
The system, which is still in its planning stages, will allow for patient information to be placed on a “middle-ware” that could be accessed via computer by all the participating hospitals and it would eventually become the system used by all the hospitals in the country.
The hospital is also one of the two in the country offering the Full Paying Patient (FPP) scheme whereby patients can choose to receive all the conveniences of a private hospital like the choice of rooms and attending specialists and special registration and appointment facilities but minus the subsidies in the fees charged.
There are 34 specialists participating in the scheme that provides general surgery (breast and endocrine surgeries), general medical services (endocrinology, gastroenterology and hepatology), obstetrics and gynaecology, orthopaedics, ophtalmology, paediatrics, anesthesiology, otorhinolaryngology (ear, nose and throat), dental and psychiatry services.
Dr Nora’i said the hospital was also offering Traditional Complimen-tary Medicine (TCM) services through a special unit set up on its ground floor.
The unit began operations in March 2008, she said, by offering traditional Malay massages and acupuncture services for patients recovering from strokes and other chronic illnesses.
“We added the Herbal Treatment as an adjunct treatment to conventional cancer treatment in October last year and in July this year we started post-natal massage services exclusively for mothers delivering their babies in this hospital,” she said.
By DHARMENDER SINGH
