Key Performance Indicators for Scheme to Help Hospitals Scale Up Adoption of Smart Technologies
Ministry of HealthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the key performance indicators and progress of the $62.5 million Smart Nursing Ward initiative raised by Ms Irene Quay Siew Ching. Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong explained that the programme aims to reduce nurses' administrative loads by adopting smart solutions like Autonomous Mobile Robots and Radio Frequency Identification technology. He noted that eligible projects must strive for at least 10% nursing time-savings to allow for more focus on direct patient care. Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong highlighted that previous automation deployments have successfully saved significant manpower, such as six full-time equivalents in one instance. However, as the scheme was launched in March 2018, he concluded that it is currently premature to assess the percentage of indicators met.
Transcript
30 Ms Irene Quay Siew Ching asked the Minister for Health what are the key performance indicators and the percentage of these indicators that have been met under the $62.5 million pilot to scale up hospitals' adoption of smart technologies as part of the Smart Nursing Ward initiative under the Healthcare Industry Transformation Map.
Mr Gan Kim Yong: Nurses make up the largest proportion of our healthcare workforce, constituting more than 40% of the workforce in public hospitals today.
In March 2018, MOH launched the Healthcare Productivity Fund – Smart Nursing Ward Programme, a key initiative under the Healthcare Industry Transformation Map. This programme supports hospitals in improving nursing processes and adopting smart solutions so as to reduce our nurses' administrative load and enable them to focus more attention on direct patient care.
Some of the areas being looked into include inventory management, materials delivery, patient monitoring and patient transport. Some technology solutions being explored include Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. For example, AMRs were earlier piloted in some of our public hospitals to transport items such as consumables and medication. One deployment saved as many as six Full Time Equivalents (FTEs). Under the Smart Nursing Ward programme, we are exploring to expand the use of these AMRs, by deploying them to deliver medical instruments. This aims to save time for nurses from walking back and forth between sterilisation facilities and Operating Theatres, enabling them to focus on direct care.
As part of the programme's eligibility criteria, proposed projects are required to strive for at least 10% nursing time-savings. As the programme was only launched in March 2018, many of the projects have just been initiated or are being explored. It is thus premature to assess the progress.