Sunway Medical Centre on digital drive, invests US$3.4mil on IT

• Private healthcare institution to implement new hospital information system
• Hitachi Sunway to deliver 5yr digital transformation programme

SUNWAY Medical Centre (SunMed) has selected Hitachi Sunway Information Systems Sdn Bhd to implement a next-generation Hospital Information System (C-HIS) by Telstra Health, effectively kick-starting the hospital’s five-year digital transformation programme.
 
Valued at RM12 million, the SunMed HIS project is expected to be commissioned by Hitachi Sunway within 18 months and will be implemented over two phases.
 
The project is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2016, Hitachi Sunway said in a statement.
 
“The primary reason for the adoption of the new hospital information system is to realise the hospital’s vision of fully digitalising and centralising its administration and records,” Sunway Group Healthcare Services managing director Lau Beng Long said.
 
He said the new C-HIS would enable SunMed to replace the traditional paper-based approach of physical medical records with Electronic Medical Records (EMR) for seamless record transfer to and from the point-of-care.
 
“With C-HIS, we will be the first to introduce the use of tablet PCs to doctors, pharmacists and nurses, to enable optimal mobility and flexibility when treating patients in both inpatient and outpatient environments, Lau said.
 
“It will also be an integral tool for the consolidation of medical consultation notes and prescriptions at the end of a patient’s visit,” he added.
 
C-HIS is one of several cloud-enabled, next-generation healthcare solutions offered by CloudMED, recently acquired by Telstra Health.
 
It provides an end-to-end hospital information management system that includes a comprehensive range of clinical, administrative and diagnostic capabilities, allowing hospitals to bridge physical distances, and to also support greater collaborative use of data among doctors, hospitals, hospital services and patients.
 
Today, it is currently installed in more than 250 health facilities across countries, including Thailand, India, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Panama, Hitachi Sunway said.
 
Hitachi Sunway aims at SEA healthcare industry
 
Hitachi Sunway group chief executive officer and director Cheah Kok Hoong (pic) said that the new project is a significant milestone for the company’s positioning in South-East Asia as a trusted, one-stop ICT partner for a diverse range of industry verticals.
 
“In particular, this project for SunMed is significant to Hitachi Sunway in making inroads into the exciting healthcare industry sector.
 
“SunMed’s move to centralise its medical services’ operations via a cloud-based HIS is commendable as the healthcare industry as a whole is moving in that direction.
 
“Hitachi Sunway is pleased to deliver and help support them with a solution that enhances innovation and manages complexity, both of which are requirements to offer high standard medical services,” he added.
 
Moving forward, Hitachi Sunway aims to fulfil the ICT support requirements of healthcare service providers around the region, and expect this business to contribute between 10% and 15% of its total revenue.
 
Hitachi Sunway is a joint venture company between Japan’s Hitachi Systems Ltd and Sunway Technology. Both Sunway Technology and SunMed are part of the Sunway Group.
 
Digital backbone
 
Lau (pic) said that this IT investment with Hitachi Sunway will form the core backbone of the hospital’s digital transformation programme that will also encompass implementation of future IT solutions.
 
“C-HIS will facilitate updates to the hospital’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to incorporate goods and services tax (GST), the integration of a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) for economical radiological films’ management, as well as consolidation of information across multiple systems used by various hospital departments.
 
“Most importantly, SunMed is embarking on this digital transformation programme in order to support our expansion strategy.
 
“The new C-HIS will be central to support the current and future operations of SunMed with the building of an additional hospital block that will bring the total number of beds to 600, which is expected to be completed by 2017,” he said.
 
Since its inception in 1999, SunMed has been one of the foremost private medical care institutions in the nation with a total of 359 beds, 119 consultation suites and 12 operation theatres.
 
It offers a comprehensive range of medical services, which includes facilities and medical technologies for outpatient and in-patient specialty care, health and wellness programmes, and 24-hour emergency services.
 
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