No More Paging For Doctors At Tan Tock Seng Hospital

Doctors in Singapore can soon say goodbye to pagers.

In a move that is expected to improve the efficiency and response times of medical staff, Tan Tock Seng Hospital's 500 doctors traded in their pagers for mobile phones.

TTSH is working closely with SingTel and Nokia for the trial use of advanced mobile technology and a reliable service network in the medical industry. The goal is to significantly improve medication management between doctors and patients at the point of care through digital telecommunication devices. It is hoped that this will enhance the quality of care to patients and increase productivity amongst healthcare professionals.

The initiative was the first exchange program of its kind in the region, as part of a S$300,000 exchange program, partly funded by a S$120,000 grant from the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA)

The initiative was likely to bring cheers to media staff. In a study by TTSH, doctors were spending an average of 80 minutes a day returning calls while nurses spent between 40 and 200 minutes a day paging them. Now, rather than simply receiving a page with no information, the doctor is able to receive a text message containing the relevant information. The SMS messages sent to doctors will be integrated with the Computerised Clinician Order Entry (CCOE) system, a computer application that accepts clinician orders electronically through telecommunication devices.

Later this year, this text messaging system will also be linked to a new computerised ordering system so that doctors will be informed automatically when their patient's laboratory results are completed.

According to Associate Professor Philip Choo, Chief of Medical Board, TTSH believes that the new system gives them the platform on which TTSH can transform the entire care process, making care for their patients faster, better, safer and cheaper.