| Cover Story |
august-september, 2020 | The Health
05
was called "Mak Cik Kiah" (MCK 19). It was
the first Malaysian-made robots for such a
purpose.
Two months later it developed “Pak
Salleh”, an autonomous spray disinfection
robot to perform automated disinfection.
This project was a collaboration with
the Ministry of Science, Technology
and Innovation (MOSTI), the Malaysian
Technology Development Corporation
(MTDC) and Megajadi Hygiene Solutions
Sdn Bhd.
But Dr Hanafiah acknowledges that
transformation towards a smart hospital
will not be easy. He is mindful of the costs
to fully migrate into a paperless hospital,
especially in light of the current economic
crisis caused by the pandemic.
“We are leveraging the current
strengths of legacy systems, focusing on
digital conversion of workflows that lend
the most benefit to the overall service and
hopefully solve some of the persisting pain
points in the service provision.
“Moreover, it is not just about digital
platforms with users. We are keen to build
and expand on our digital identity and
community.
“This is a big challenge, of course, and
we are just at the beginning, trying to chart
the best way forward.”
Creating value for stakeholders
HCTM is not profit-driven as it is a public
teaching hospital. The ecosystem approach
looks at the relationship of stakeholders
and beneficiaries as well as analysing the
potentials and limitations to come out with
the best value-added system.
“To me, the critical element is value. We
must provide value for our stakeholders,
and that is by maximising these three value
chains; patient care, data and content,” said
Dr Hanafiah.
“We must provide the best care for our
patients. Our practice must be up to date
and professional. It must be affordable. The
system must be efficient. We must be the
preferred hospital, and for that to happen,
the staff must be happy. They must be
friendly,” he further noted.
Besides providing the best system,
HCTM also strives to deliver on a
sustainable ecosystem. But of course,
healthcare expenses take no small
measures. It is not cheap.
With the current global economic
downturn, there is a need to reduce
wastage and doing this equals to taking
everything into account. It is to ensure the
hospital can generate income to sustain the
services and wages.
The hospital also aims to obtain a
larger budget to pay the staff’s overtime
allowances, provide food in OT for on-call
staff, award promotions to those who
deserve it, provide free parking for staff and
assisting those in difficulties.
Dr Hanafiah firmly believes the
wellbeing of the staff equates to the
wellbeing of patients. The patients are
placed as a priority. To provide adequate
care for patients, HCTM introduced a more
exact pathway for clinical governance,
working towards obtaining healthcare
accreditation, national benchmarking and
shifting HCTM’s work culture.
“To be competitive, we must be open. We
must not be afraid to benchmark against
the best. Our strategy is to collaborate
with partners locally and internationally.
Governmental and non-governmental
organisations and of course the public,” he
stated.
The hospital also spent RM40 million to
replace old equipment, repair and repaint
the wards and hospital building, improve
its lobby and enhance the hospital’s
landscape to help the patients to destress.
It is also planning for new Emergency
Services, Operating Theatre (OT) and
Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
It is also working on opening its
long due additional parking lots, a new
administrative building and its latest
executive suites. There will also be a Royal
Suite.
On financial challenges, Dr Hanafiah
said HCTM had boosted its business team
and for two years in a row generated over
DIGITAL HEALTH:
HCTM aims to become a
leading smart hospital.
AT YOUR SERVICE...
Mak Cik Kiah serves
Covid-19 patients.
COVID-19 BUSTER...
Pak Salleh is a robot
that dispenses liquid
disinfectant.
RM100 million annually (previously RM60
million) to help cover the deficit from its
budget.
It’s also building a strong rapport with
the Ministry of Health (MoH) and its other
sister university hospitals.
Building a research
centre of excellence
UKM is a research university. It carries the
name of a national university and has a
huge responsibility to ensure it takes that
mandate well.
The hospital and medical faculty
have also been the biggest producer of
specialists for the country since the 1980s.
Its professors and lecturers are key opinion
leaders. The potential for HCTM UKM to
build a centre of excellence is high.
Dr Hanafiah sees the need to capitalise
on this matter.
He said: “We need to strengthen our
centre of excellence and build a new
culture. We need to facilitate research and
help researchers to obtain grants.
“For that, we are opening our new
Clinical Trial Ward and work with our
collaborators. We also have international
adjunct professors at the university that
may assist our young lecturers in doing
research.”
Dr Hanafiah said the introduction
of THIS will spur the university’s
research capacity by pulling in local
and international talents. With HCTM’s
patients numbering over 800,000 annually,
they will not run short of sample materials.
THIS will also see paper files replaced
with electronic medical records. The
system will put into the storage of all
hospital information system, including
the radiology PACS system, the pharmacy
system and the Caring Hospital Enterprise
System (CHETS), which is a newlyimplemented
system.
MSQH accreditation
At present, HCTM is in the process of
obtaining the MSQH accreditation. The
MSQH Hospital Accreditation Program
(HAP) is a voluntary, independent
programme supported and administered
by healthcare professionals; organised
under the auspices of the Malaysian
Society for Quality in Health (MSQH),
a non-governmental organisation and
not-for-profit.
HCTM took steps to galvanise the
staff from its management level and at
the operational level since the end of
2019 (during the fourth quarter). All key
departments were asked to initiate a
pre-survey exercise to identify weak points.
It is being carried out incrementally.
The committee that executes these tasks
is headed by HCTM’s Deputy Director, Prof
Hanita. As these efforts are in progress, Dr
Hanafiah said it aimed to complete them by
next year. — The Health