Welcome!
Ever wondered what’s the story that inspired your colleagues to go the extra mile? Or how about what goes on behind the scenes of an award-winning project? Or perhaps just simply a quote to begin your day?
Join us on a journey with us as we go behind the scenes and explore these untold stories that together make up the Heartbeat of our Hospital.
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Redesigning Call-Out System for Chest Physiotherapy
“It is challenging to change a protocol that has been put in place for a long period of time. But once you put into perspective that everything you do is for the betterment of patient care, the work does not seem so arduous.” - Audrey Lee, Senior Physiotherapist
This was the sentiment shared by the Physiotherapy (PT) Department when it came to redesigning the call-out system for chest physiotherapy. To better manage inappropriate chest physiotherapy call-out cases and ensure staff provide timely, safe and effective management while minimising stress, representatives from different teams within the PT Department came together to redesign the call-out system.
With members of different experience levels, the team brainstormed ideas and developed an easily accessible algorithm and a specialised PT consultant system. The team conducted surveys and engaged staff to get their support in the change process. "We discovered that all the team members are task-oriented people and we have the most effective meetings," Clara Wong, Senior Physiotherapist, shares. Having a common goal to improve processes for better patient care and staff welfare drove the team to ensure this project was a success.
"In this ever-changing landscape, we have to think and act fast to catch up with these changes. Hence, wait no further to start implementing changes." Koh Teng Han, Senior Physiotherapy, advises.
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C3 Smart Hospital for the Future
*Photo was taken before the Circuit Breaker.
"Innovation is just like playing with Lego. We first envision what the final Lego product will look like before trying to incrementally assemble the multiple smaller pieces together." - Perry Chia, Executive, Resource Management (Ops Centre)
Imagine this. What if there was a hospital system that not only had eyes on the ground, but also the brains to sense, think and respond to hospital operations?
This vision of developing a smart hospital system became a reality when the hospital embarked on a journey in early 2014 to develop the Command, Control & Communications (C3) Smart Hospital System. The system interacts real-time with multiple ground sensors and transactional systems throughout the hospital and feeds the information to the hospital's Operation Command Centre, enabling the hospital to respond accordingly to optimise patient flow and care delivery.
Starting with just a two-man team, the C3 team has grown over the years to the current four-man core team who anchors the main tracks of development forward.
The team is mainly responsible for the system's operational requirement constructions, implementation into system deliverables and live production system quality checks. These include the actual operationalisation and facilitation of leadership decisions and operations management.
"A good crisis is not to be wasted." While the C3 system had only gone live in December 2019 with plans to move into the outbreak scenario development in early 2020, the team had to adapt quickly when they were presented with a real crisis in the form of COVID-19. With real data points and cases, they could immediately synthesise the system into working prototypes. Doubling their efforts, the team responded and overcame waves of challenges to produce what we now progressively have, the outbreak scenario system. There is still much to be done and the team is ever ready to respond to each new challenge.
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We hope to sustain the good work, scale it up and expand it to the community. With the ripple effect, we hope more volunteers can come onboard, creating a community of carers to benefit our patients
Ashton Neoh, Senior Physiotherapist, Physiotherapy
*Photo was taken before the Circuit Breaker
Engaging Volunteers in Performing Para-Clinical Tasks
A volunteer transformation programme was developed to empower volunteers to take on para-clinical roles in Total Knee Replacement (TKR) rehabilitation. By up-skilling volunteers through a structured training curriculum, they are able to educate patients on TKR rehabilitation as well as guide and supervise them on their exercise, thereby improving patients' exercise compliance and clinical outcome.
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ESD emphasizes on patient-centred care by providing individualized rehabilitation through shared rehabilitation goal setting with the team. Patients become motivated and empowered to reach objectives that matter most to them.
Early Supported Discharge (ESD) Home Rehabilitation Programme
The ESD Programme started in 2016 as a model of care that links the inpatient services to the community. It is a home-based rehabilitation programme that allows seamless and coordinated discharge from the hospital and provides contextualized rehabilitation by an interdisciplinary team. It shortens the duration of acute hospital stay and facilitates early reintegration to the patients’ own home and community.
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Improving Transfer Process from TTSH to Central Community Hospitals (AMKH and RCCH)
“Transformation towards seamless care integration enables patients to receive earlier appropriate care and rehabilitation that bridges their return to the community.”
With an ageing population, there is an increased need for rehabilitation and continuing care at a Community Hospital after discharge from an Acute Hospital for optimal recovery and functional improvement. For the past four years, the average turnaround time for a transfer from TTSH to Ang Mo Kio-Thye Hua Kwan Hospital (AMK-THKH) or Ren Ci Community Hospital (RCCH) could take up to 6 days. Waiting for Community Hospital beds affects right-siting of care, acute bed occupancy throughput and timely admission of patients from Emergency Department. A multi-disciplinary team from TTSH, AMK-THKH and RCCH was thus formed to spearhead and implement care integration efforts across TTSH and Central Community Hospitals.
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Patient care is holistically managed based on medical and social needs in alignment with personal care goals. It is focused and coordinated, transforming care design and delivery.
Frequent Readmitter Programme
In line with the national movement “Beyond Hospital to Community” and TTSH Better Care strategy, the Frequent Readmitter Programme was established to develop effective and robust processes for proactive identification and management of patients with a pre-determined number of readmission episodes within a year. The programme has moved away from doctor-centric to patient-centric service with a multi-disciplinary approach. With internal collaboration and external partnerships among diverse stakeholders, patient care is managed holistically at the appropriate care setting from hospital to home.
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Yi San believes that people are the key to the work that we do and if we take care of our people, we will accomplish more meaningful work. As Unit Head of Outpatient Pharmacy, she actively encourages the learning and relearning culture within the unit and coaches staff on areas of leadership and soft skills. Over the years, she has made various contributions to pharmacy projects and workgroups. She was part of the core team that carried out the Pharmacy Patient Journey Transformation Project with implementation of Medication Supply Verification process within clinics by pharmacy technicians and patient service associates, renovation of pharmacy and implementation of Outpatient Pharmacy Automation system.
“Many of us joined healthcare with a certain purpose in mind. For me, it's about being able to improve the life of another person. It helps to always keep that purpose in sight as your guiding north star and you will never get lost, even when the going gets tough or when you meet uncertainties in life.”
- Chong Yi San, Principal Pharmacist, Pharmacy
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“Life in TTSH presents something new and meaningful at every turn for me to learn about and contribute to.” - Teo Kaiting, Manager, Ops (DICC)
Over the eight years that Kaiting has been with TTSH, she has made various contributions at both the institution and cluster level. As the driver cum project manager of the TTSH Healthcare Intelligence system, she successfully delivered the project’s intensive user requirements stage by active engagement of more than 35 domains of colleagues. Since July 2015, she has taken on the Integrated Intermediate Care Hub, Palliative Medicine and Advance Care Planning portfolio. With patients’ interests in mind, she led in the planning of improvement events such as IT Value Stream Mapping, Food Serving Mock-up, patient furniture design, manpower planning etc. She was the co-driver for the Clinic B2B project that reduced wait-time to blood-taking, review appointment booking rules and improved patient and staff satisfaction. Through her effective leadership and staff support, many of the projects she was involved in have won numerous awards.
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To embrace challenges and to see each one as a learning opportunity. You will be surprised at what you can achieve if you are willing to give it a try.
Benjamin Seto, Assistant Director, Planning & Development
Ben supports the Planning & Development director, CFO and CEO in establishing strategic financial levers and driving payment model transformation for TTSH and Central Health. One of his key contributions involved the setup of Central Health Enabling Funds framework and process, which would greatly expedite the Central Health’s mission and strategic priorities in delivering integrated care for the population in Central zone. He also helped to put in place the Tertiary Care Development Fund framework which would support the development of new clinical capabilities for TTSH as a tertiary hub. He is currently leading TTSH efforts in Finance Transformation that includes the implementation of the extended DRG Plus scheme and Integrated Healthcare Financing Pilot. Under his expanded role as Assistant Director, he advises on the facilitated engagement of community partners through Neighbourhood Conversations with providers in Central Zone, and currently oversees the organisation of the Central Health Action and Learning Kampung (CHALK).
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Commit to seeing the larger picture of the profession within healthcare and to be the voice that advocates for patients!
Lee Sin Yi, Principal Physiotherapist, Physiotherapy
Sin Yi is a Principal Physiotherapist who has a strong interest in geriatrics. She is currently the Unit Head of the Geriatrics Physiotherapy team with 20 staff under her care. She is also the President of the Singapore Physiotherapy Association, as well as the Allied Health lead of the Division of Central Health. Complementing her roles, she works to create viable links between the healthcare sector and other organisations such as Active-SG. Aside from clinical and leadership duties, Sin Yi’s other passion is in teaching. She is in the NHG Interprofessional Leadership Programme curriculum development team that trains staff to work in an interprofessional team approach with focus on patient-centred care. The programme has since been successfully adopted in TTSH where budding mentors are trained in a structured manner.
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Challenges are the learning opportunities. Have confidence, be humble, show sincerity and respond wisely.
Hnin Nwe Oo, Senior Nurse Educator, Nursing Service (NE)
A core member of various training faculties and programmes, Hnin’s passion towards nursing education is indisputable. As a member of the Adjunct Faculty of NHG College, she facilitates training conducted by NHG College for nurses within NHG. As Co-Chair of the Nursing Education and Development Council, she has helped to elevate standards of practice as ground members participate in policy recommendations and issues that affect nursing practice. Always willing to offer a listening ear to the individual needs of those she mentors, fellow colleagues are able to easily approach her and communicate their thoughts and concerns. She is also a core faculty member of Advanced Respiratory Care Course and brings ICU nurses' respiratory care competencies to the next level.
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Rehabilitating Amputee Patients
Clara has a special interest in the care and rehabilitation of amputee patients which inspired her to think of ways to improve the continuity of care for this group of patients. She has led in a few multidisciplinary improvement projects, one of which has helped to shorten the time of prosthesis delivery to patients by 30%. She also led a project to integrate the care of amputee patients with community care providers for pre-prosthetic rehabilitation and for maintenance therapy post prosthetic rehabilitation. In 2016, she set up the first major lower limb amputation database in TTSH that tracks patients with major lower limb amputation from acute right through their discharge from Foot Care and Limb Design Centre.
“My colleagues and bosses are my biggest motivation at work. I achieve my best because I have a group of passionate people working with me. If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.”
- Clara Wong, Senior Physiotherapist, Physiotherapy
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When our eyes, mind and heart are aligned, we will find the calling in our guts to do our best and to do what is right.
Dr Neo Han Yee, Senior Consultant, Palliative Medicine
(Dr Neo, 1st person on left in photo)
Well respected by peers and juniors especially in the fields of Medical Ethics, Communication and Palliative Care, Dr Neo has been described as someone who possesses good interpersonal skills and is able to communicate well with peers, patients and families. He often puts the patient’s needs above his own and has been known to come back after hours to see his own patients. He is the clinical lead of the Integrated Care for Advanced REspiratory disorders (ICARE) programme, which is a collaboration between the Palliative Medicine Deparment and Ren Ci Hospital to improve symptom management, promote multidisciplinary rehabilitation and social reintegration of patients with advanced respiratory diseases. He is also actively involved in teaching and has received excellent feedback from students.
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“Knowing that what I do affects the lives of patients, colleagues, and Singaporeans sustains my passion in my work and motivates me to do my best.” - Dr Angela Chow, Head & Senior Consultant, Clinical Epidemiology
As Head and Senior Consultant of Clinical Epidemiology, Dr Angela is actively involved with epidemiological surveillance and the prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections and emerging infectious diseases. She developed comprehensive programmes for infectious cluster detection and disease-specific surveillance and leveraged on technologies to enhance patient safety and patient care. For instance, she developed TTSH’s Infection Control Enhanced Surveillance System (ICESS) that enabled the auto-identification of potentially infectious patients at the point of hospital admission for auto-routing to cohort or isolation beds and alerts on clinical dashboards for enhanced precautions.
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To quote from Maya Angelou, an American writer, poet and civil rights activist, ‘I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
A/Prof Tan Thai Lian, ACMB, Special Projects, & Senior Consultant, Geriatric Medicine
As Assistant Chairman Medical Board (Special Projects), A/Prof Tan holds several key hospital roles and spearheaded numerous improvement projects, for instance he chairs the Infectious Disease Outbreak Clinical Workgroup and Complex Care Workgroup, and directed the setting up of the Acute Internal Medicine Service. During his term as Head of Geriatric Medicine Department, he led the team to embrace the evolving role of Geriatric Medicine in Singapore’s Healthcare system and pioneered the comprehensive model of geriatric care in NHG. For instance, he conceptualised the formation of Division of Integrative and Community Care in 2008, a first such Division of a Restructured Hospital in Singapore. He also started the first Geriatric Evaluation, Management and Subacute Care unit in a Restructured Hospital.
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A Heart of Giving
“I love my job. It gives me the chance to do something in my own small way for the community, through contributing towards patient care. And because of my passion, my job is no longer just a job. This passion becomes the energy that drives me to always do my best.” - Eunice Toh, Director, Development Fund
Eunice’s most notable contribution in NHG is her fundraising efforts. She grew and established TTSH Community Fund from a small fund of $1M in 2009 to a full-fledged $70M company that it is today. It has since been set up as an independent and separate legal entity for better transparency and governance in the charity sector, and raised substantial donations of $52M to support innovation and programmes that enable workforce transformation and community health initiatives for excellence in healthcare delivery. She also conceptualised the first volunteer-led Hand Hygiene Awareness Campaign in Singapore that greatly improved awareness and compliance rate in the hospital.
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In healthcare it is not about one person, but we always work together as a team, and that includes the patient. I am motivated by the many needs around us, and it gives me great satisfaction to see our patients recover or improve, working together with the healthcare team.
Together Everyone Achieves More.
A/Prof John Abisheganaden, Head & Senior Consultant, Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine
As Head of the Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine Department, Dr Abisheganaden has elevated the standard of healthcare delivery in Respiratory Medicine. He has actively promoted key quality improvement initiatives, introduced new clinical servicessuch as the bronchiectasis clinic, as well as new procedures like the endobronchial ultrasonography, and promoted educational, teaching, research and scholarly activity. Under his leadership, the department has seen significant rise in the utilisation of bronchoscopy services, resulting in reduced waiting times and improved quality of care.
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