SINGAPORE--Parkway Group Healthcare has inked a S$6 million (US$3.9 million) contract with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to give its IT system a facelift.
Under the 18-month agreement, TCS will implement its Hospital Management Solution (HMS) for Parkway which include developing user interfaces customized to the Singapore-based healthcare services provider's systems. The implementation will also include the integration of Oracle E-Business Suite, an integrated suite of applications with healthcare-specific functionalities.
Parkway runs three of Singapore's healthcare institutions, including East Shore Hospital, Gleneagles Hospital and Mount Elizabeth Hospital.
Speaking at the signing ceremony held here today, Girija Pande, executive vice president and head of Asia-Pacific at TCS, said the collaboration is a "synergy" with the Singapore government's plan to create a medical hub as well as grow the country's medical tourism sector.
Parkway is planning to introduce RFID (radio frequency identification) tools and biometrics electronics, which Pande said, underscored the importance of building an IT infrastructure capable of supporting these new capabilities.
"More people get interested and excited about these devices, which are what you see either as a user or a patient," he said. "[However], they forget that behind [these tools]…is a foundation, an IT system which has to be reliable, scalable [and] interoperable, otherwise some of these things won't work."
Zero waiting time?
According to Daniel James Snyder, Parkway's executive vice president and group COO, the new system will help the healthcare provider shorten the waiting time for its customers.
Snyder noted that while customers do not have to wait for admission into any of Parkway's hospital, they still have to wait for between 30 and 45 minutes to settle discharge procedures.
"We intend to speed [the discharge process] up significantly," he said, adding that he expects the discharge waiting time to be reduced drastically to near "zero [minutes]" as the healthcare provider would have "real-time records of the patients" and a billing process that is "up-to-date and ready to go".
"Patients arrive at hospitals not necessarily because they choose to be there. They usually arrive sick, tired, nervous and scared about what's going to happen," Snyder said. "So our job is to take really good care of them…and get them out of the hospital as fast we can [because] the best place for patients [to be] is generally at home."
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