Changi hospital nurses reach out to patients to keep closer tabs on them
Fri, Aug 01, 2008
The Straits Times
By Lee Hui Chieh
CHANGI General Hospital (CGH) will send nurses into the community as part of effort to improve care of chronic patients and keep them out of hospitals.
The nurses, called care coordinators, will monitor the patients' conditions, ensure they stick to regular treatment and refer them to other health-care professionals, if necessary.
Each patient will be taken care of by a 'disease management unit' comprising a care coordinator and a doctor in charge.
The doctor may be a general practitioner or a hospital specialist, depending on how severe or complex the patient's condition is.
The care coordinators will look after patients discharged from CGH who have had diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, strokes, heart disease and heart failure.
They will also take under their wing other patients whose conditions are not well-controlled despite treatment, and who are referred by private GPs and other community health providers such as nursing homes.
In another step towards making health care across different institutions more seamless, the Health Ministry will also be setting up an IT company that pools together SingHealth's and NHG's IT departments.
The company, which provides IT support services to public hospitals and polyclinics, will also help set up a national electronic health record system by 2010.
The idea is for any health-care institution, public or private, which is treating the patient to be able to assess his medical record, so that tests and procedures do not have to be repeated.
