Singapore: Big data making a great difference in healthcare

 28-Feb-15, Today

It is a recurrent challenge of public hospitals here: Waiting times for patients at the emergency department. To tackle the issue at Changi General Hospital (CGH), Dr Chow Wai Leng and her team waded into three years’ worth of data: Who were the patients coming to the department and what were their numbers? On which days of the week and at what times of the day were they coming in? Were they acute cases?

Image: Today

After analysing usage patterns, the team proposed a redistribution of manpower to better match arrival patterns of patients. From July 2013, the emergency department rejigged its roster for doctors, arranging for greater overlap in their shifts during the peak hours of around 10am and 7pm to 8pm.

The results soon followed, with average median time to first consultation for patients with more serious conditions shortened from 33 to 25 minutes, a 24 per cent improvement. Doctors have also reported a qualitative improvement in their workload.

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