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| The journey
from Guinness to Brigham’s |
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Women patients
are better served with the introduction of
specialties like sports medicine
and orthopaedics at KKH. |
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It was in the Guinness Book of Records for a
decade for having the highest number of births in a single
maternity facility from 1966 onwards.
No wonder KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital
(KKH) has a comprehensive set of services for children.
Although the hospital also attends to women, its specialties
have revolved largely around obstetrics and gynaecology
(O&G) — until now.
Women can now enjoy a wider range of services at KKH,
with new specialties such as ear, nose and throat (ENT),
aesthetic and reconstructive surgery, and orthopaedics
springing up
in 2005.
The hospital aspires to go from Guinness to Brigham’s,
a challenge Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan issued to KKH.
“He said, ‘Why don’t you think about
expanding beyond O&G on your women’s side, and
becoming a Brigham and Women’s Hospital of the East?’”
said Chief Executive Officer Associate Professor (A/Prof)
Ivy Ng.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital is a teaching affiliate
of Harvard Medical School and a leading name in women’s
health.
KKH readily took up the challenge to broaden its scope
of services. The result: a one-stop Breast Centre —
the only one of its kind in Singapore, a Mental Wellness
Service and a Sports Medicine Clinic, among a gamut of
services tailored for women.
But just how did KKH get into the minds of women to determine
what
they want?
Following Mr Khaw’s proposal, the hospital assembled
a taskforce of clinicians to brainstorm what their women
patients frequently asked for. Members included doctors,
nurses and allied health staff from different divisions
of the hospital who had regular contact with female patients.
Taskforce members were likewise drawn from the children’s
side of the hospital to provide a fuller view of what
women needed. One ENT surgeon who specialised in children,
for example, noticed that mothers who came to him
with their children also asked him about their own problems.
From the increase in the number of women patients using
the new services, it looks like KKH is getting it right.
The KK Breast Centre has seen the number of new referrals
grow by more than three times, from 80 cases per month
to about 300 cases per month at present. Many patients
have also sent in their compliments on the Breast Centre,
A/Prof Ng pointed out.
Asked what else KKH is doing to be the best hospital in
Asia for women’s health, A/Prof Ng answered: “Keeping
our eye on clinical excellence and patient-centric care.
We don’t need to say, ‘How do we beat the
neighbours to be better than them?’ I think patients
will go where they feel that care is moulded according
to their needs, and where they are confident of the level
of clinical care that they are receiving.”
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by Marianne
Choo, Challenge Editorial Team
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