SUPPORT FOR SINGAPORE EXPO COMMUNITY CARE FACILITY

As it became clear that not all COVID-19 cases required hospital care, the Government set up Community Care Facilities (CCFs) for patients who were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms, so as to ease the strain on the hospitals. When the Singapore EXPO CCF was set up, the daily Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to perform checks on vital signs for every single patient was extremely time-consuming. This “pull” method consumed most of each medical professional's day. A digital automated paging system was quickly developed which “pushed” patients to report for daily checks as required, and reduced the load on medical professionals. This system reaped significant savings of up to 90% in man-hours and freed the medical team to focus on their primary medical tasks. This was a good demonstration of how simple technology coupled with a strong understanding of operational flow could result in a force multiplier effect.

MANAGING UNCERTAINTY

COVID-19 accelerated the need to embrace technology, both to fight against the virus and also because people changed the way they worked and connected. For the SAF, our experience battling COVID-19 underscored the great value of technology-enabled innovations. CSSTFs never stopped trying to push the boundaries in making use of technology for the fight.