Praram9 Hospital has been awarded the Digital Transformation Initiative of the Year at the Healthcare Asia Award 2024 in Singapore. Here is the news written by the editorial team of Healthcare Asia magazine.
With digital technologies permeating every aspect of people’s lives, it has become imperative for businesses to adapt and evolve in response to the changing consumer needs. Private hospitals are no exception. Today, patients increasingly expect seamless access to their health information and desire enhanced communication channels with healthcare providers, extending beyond the confines of traditional hospital visits.
This has led private hospital Praram9 Hospital to embark on a journey to modernise its services, striving to become a fully digital hospital in alignment with the evolving preferences of consumers in the digital era.
In the past year, it has upgraded its entire service ecosystem, beginning with the enhancements at the health check-up centre and extending to other outpatient services. This service enhancement has been developed alongside the adjustment of three key components crucial for sustainable transformation: people, process, and technology.
The people component shows that those who require a mindset ready to embrace change should foster a culture of collaboration, agility, and trust within the organisation. Whilst, the process component has been transformed from working in silos to a decentralised approach – distributing decision-making power to employees at all levels.
The technology component is leveraged to address issues and enhance convenience for patients accessing hospital services from home to home, including ensuring standardised medical and data security protocols.
This project has introduced a novel “Decentralisation Model Based on Customers,” comprising two key dimensions: service enhancement and operation-supportive system design. These dimensions aim to streamline patient experiences and fortify backend infrastructure, ensuring seamless data management and safeguarding against cyber threats.
To align with the needs of digital-era service users, the service enhancement dimension divided its service into three parts. Before hospital services, there is the online medical record access with enhanced identity verification and authentication systems, appointment scheduling, online check-in, and online health package purchase.
After online check-up, the system gives immediate access to services upon arrival at the hospital, with notifications for procedures to reduce waiting time and congestion in service areas. After hospital service, customers are immediately given access to health examination results online.
This service design eliminates the limitation of traditional centralised hospital-based services, shifting the focus to patients, facilitated by supporting technologies.
Meanwhile, the operation-supportive system design entails the establishment of a robust infrastructure capable of seamlessly integrating digital services from backend to frontend, ensuring adherence to established standards.
In addition to these, Praram9 Hospital has outlined a comprehensive digital transformation strategy. This includes establishing a digital board to steer digital initiatives and investments, revamping the organisational structure to facilitate agile digital operations and innovations, and developing digital competencies across all staff levels.
It also involves designing systems that place patients at the centre, with decentralised and personalised service approaches, implementing a culture transformation, and supporting the development of user-friendly digital services to meet evolving patient needs.
This innovative approach has been recognised by the coveted Healthcare Asia Awards 2024, where Praram9 Hospital clinched the Digital Transformation Initiative of the Year – Thailand category win.
“Overall, Praram9 Hospital is steadfast in its commitment to modernising services in response to the evolving demands of patients in the digital age, exemplifying a dedication to excellence in healthcare service delivery,” the company said.
The prestigious awards programme recognises exceptional healthcare providers that have redefined the standards of healthcare through their unwavering dedication to innovation, setting of new industry benchmarks, and substantial contributions to their communities.
