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I REFER to the letter 'Four ways for quicker service at SGH' by Mr Hwang Liang Keng on Friday.
We thank Mr Hwang for his suggestions and apologise for the long waiting times he experienced whenever he visited our clinic.
The Specialist Outpatient Clinics see over 3,000 patients each day. This includes a large number of referrals as well as existing patients who need continuing care by our specialists.
We are mindful that long waiting time is very stressful and inconvenient for our patients and their caregivers. As such, we review our processes and services at the clinic on an ongoing basis. Initiatives implemented include:
The Service Express@SOC which enables patients to make a one-off pre-authorised Giro or credit card payment or cash deposits for all subsequent visits. More than 9,000 outpatients use this service today;
An SMS service reminds patients of outpatient appointments a week ahead and on appointment day, when it is their turn for consultation so that they need not wait physically at the clinic. Over 750,000 SMSes were sent last year;
A Service Operations project, where available consultation rooms are better matched with doctors, has resulted in shorter waits to see doctors and 800 more patients getting appointments each month.
Mr Hwang may be pleased to know that we will be implementing self-registration for follow-up consultations at the outpatient clinics in the second quarter of this year.
Our frontline staff do multi-task. They handle registration when patients are flowing in and switch to handling payments and appointments when there are more patients.
In spite of the high patientload, our case notes for most patients are ready at the clinic about two days before the appointment and presented to the doctors soon after patient registration. Access to patients' medical records and test results are also enhanced with Electronic Medical Records (EMR) where doctors can view patients' data from multiple sources simultaneously with less dependency on paper records.
Enhancing patients' experience is as important to us as achieving good clinical outcomes. As such, we have multiple platforms to engage patients and are always grateful for feedback that can improve our services.
Foo Hee Jug
Chief Operating Officer
Singapore General Hospital
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