A digital system at SGH allows the team to track and trace sterile instruments quickly and deliver them to surgeons.SINGAPORE: With a simple push of a button and a touch on a screen, dozens of body tissue samples can be processed at once by a machine at a laboratory at Tan Tock Seng Hospital .TTSH is the first healthcare institution in Singapore to introduce such an automated system that processes bacteria which can cause skin infections.
“With a rising workload, which goes up every year by about 4 or 5 per cent, we haven't had to employ new staff to do the work. The automation has absorbed that workload while still keeping the turnaround time,” he added.TTSH is among some hospitals here that are saving tens of thousands of man-hours each year by tapping technology, such as automation and robots.
After a piece of equipment has been cleaned, staff can easily identify what set it belongs to and pack them all together. It has helped the hospital save nearly 2,000 man-hours for this job per month. SGH has been using automation to improve efficiency of its deliveries. A centralised system receives orders from various users in the hospital, picks out what is needed and delivers it to the required station for staff to double check.