Doctors Share on the Need for Reinvention

It's often said that in the business world, change is the strategy to stay relevant, resilient and viable. For government medical professionals, whose mandate is to serve the public and whose day-to-day practice is concerned with clinical, not financial, outcomes, how important is reinvention?

Insights spoke to three senior medical professionals from Singapore Health Services (SingHealth), who are attending the SMU-SingHealth Graduate Diploma in Healthcare Management and Leadership, on reinvention in their practice.

Dr Fabian Yap, Senior Consultant and Head, Endocrinology Service, at the KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH), observes that the relationship between patient and doctor has evolved over the years.

He says, “Our relationship has now become more of a partnership. Patients are demanding more information about their treatment and care. And that's why we need to reinvent the way we deliver patient care.”

Recognising that Asian medical practitioners may be less vocal and forthcoming in their communication with patients, Dr Yap made it a point to include members who are more people-oriented and communicative when selecting his multidisciplinary team of doctors and nurses.

Dr Yap's team provides long-term care for children with chronic illnesses, whose problems cannot be resolved in two or three visits. With the continuity of care being crucial, Dr Yap's department has made a difference by reinventing the role of nurses.

He explains, “In Singapore, junior doctors traditionally take on the role of physicians' assistants, but they tend to rotate in their postings. Because nurses tend to stay in a job posting for a longer period, they are an important link in the continuity of care for patients with chronic diseases. Hence, my department has invested in our nurses' training to enable them to play the part of physicians' assistants.”

Like Dr Yap, Dr Low Yee runs a team at KKH. For the Senior Consultant and Head of Paediatric Surgery, reinventing business means reinventing the processes in her department so that they can facilitate more desirable clinical outcomes for their patients.

One example of how she has led her team to achieve this is the overhaul of her department's training programme.

“We have instituted a higher level of supervision of the junior doctors and medical students, and elevated the level of patient care,” she explains.

Dr Low acknowledges that there are challenges to the process of reinvention, including getting buy-in from her team. She says, “Some of the initiatives I want to implement may adversely affect some team members. For example, to get a higher level of supervision, the senior doctors may have to commit more time to the overseeing the junior doctors.”

But she sees these challenges as temporary. Ultimately, the results, including an elevated level of care leading to higher patient satisfaction and better clinical outcomes, will speak for themselves.

Dr Camilla Wong, a pharmacist and Deputy Director, Allied Health Division, Singapore General Hospital , agrees that one of the goals of reinvention is creating satisfaction in both internal and external customers.

“We may reinvent the staff's roles into more challenging, meaningful ones. This raises their job satisfaction. We may also make processes and services more efficient to benefit external customers,” she explains. An example is how pharmacists now run anticoagulation clinics in collaboration with medical departments and prescribe warfarin (a task that was previously only carried out by medical doctors). Evidence show that these pharmacists, at minimum, provide the same level of care, at a cheaper cost.

But as the business of healthcare evolves, all three acknowledge, medical professionals may need to pay more attention to the bottomline. And that's where the lessons learnt from the SMU-SingHealth Graduate Diploma in Healthcare Management and Leadership will come in handy.

Dr Low remarks, “This course has been an eye-opener for me as it has helped me see beyond patient care at the larger picture of resources, business models and marketing. The immediate applications of the lessons may be limited in our case as doctors in public healthcare, but they can certainly be modified to suit our situation.”

Dr Yap adds, “This is an insightful programme that has provided me with a better understanding of business. I have enjoyed the exchange with the knowledgeable faculty.”

Quote Dr Wong, "I have attended several leadership and management programmes in the past but none of them surpass the breath and depth of relevant topics that this programme offers."