Our Quality Vision
In Changi General Hospital, the care of each and every patient is
of utmost importance to us. As a result, we have set out to fulfil
our Quality Vision of:
"To provide a level of patient care and services good enough
for our own mothers without the need for special arrangements."
Affectionately known to all CGH staff as the "Motherhood Statement'
and imbued into the hearts of every CGH staff, the quality statement
aims to inspire staff to meet the hospital's vision of being "A
hospital recognised by patients and staff for excellence and compassion
in service and care".
Adopting a Framework for World Class Quality
The blueprint for the quality framework also took centre stage. In
1994, CGH adopted the Singapore Quality Award (SQA) framework to benchmark
ourselves against world-class standards of business excellence. We
were among the pioneering group of companies to receive our membership
to the Singapore Quality Class (SQC) in 1997. We are currently embarking
on the SQA journey.
With ISO being an international measure of excellence, CGH has been
ISO 9002 certified since September 1996. Two years later after the
recognition of our quality management, we secured the ISO 14001 certification
for our environmental management system. In 2002, we were awarded
the ISO 9001-2000, evidence of CGH's progressive world class advancement
in various aspects of hospital operation.
Learning from the Best
Changi General Hospital learns and adopts the best practices from
world class organisations around the globe. Cross industry benchmarking
partners are selected based on their excellence in processes that
are related to our core processes. Some prominent companies whom we
have conducted benchmarking work with include Ritz Carlton Hotel,
Citibank, IBM, DHL, Federal Express, Beth Israel Hospital (USA) and
Singapore Airlines. We also place high regards for clinical quality.
We adopt the Maryland Indicators Project to benchmark against other
hospitals as well as keep a set of internal indicators to track our
performance.
Training our Staff
Employing a series of Service Quality courses, staff are equipped
with the skills to render their services with a sense of personal
urgency and genuine concern accorded only to our loved ones. There
are courses in Service Quality tailored for staff of all levels, Quality
Circles Training, Personal Grooming for frontline staff, telephone
skills, as well as communication courses for our doctors. Our CGH
Core Values and CGH basics constantly reinforce consistent quality
service for our patients even in our everyday tasks.
Continuous Improvement
The Quality Steering Committee and the Medical Audit Committee meet
monthly to discuss the clinical and non-clinical quality issues that
the hospital faces. On a functional scale, CGH has seen 153 completed
Quality Circles (QC) projects done by 77 of its QC teams since its
inception in 1992. Over the last 3 years, all QC teams return from
the National Convention with the highest awards of 3 and 2 Stars in
the Star Category or Silver and Gold in the Newcomer and Experienced
category.
On the individual level, our Staff Suggestion Scheme (SSS) opens
the feedback and suggestion channel for all staff. With the inception
of the Electronic SSS, more than 8000 suggestions have been put forth,
of which a third of the suggestions are considered able to be implemented.
All these translate to better patient care and smoother workflow.
Quality Circles
QC is one of the pillars of continuous improvement in Changi General
Hospital (CGH).
QC is open to all staff: The primary objective of QC is to provide
ample opportunities for every staff to participate in quality improvement
within and outside their area of work. We believe that for improvement
and innovation, our staff are our most valuable resource.
QC calls for empowerment to all staff: We empower every staff with
Basic QC skills and strongly encourage teams to be inter-departmental
to garner the best ideas covering every perspective.
- CGH did well in the QC arena in 2002.
We sent 23 QC teams to the National Quality Circles Convention (NQCC)
in August, returning with an award tally of: two 3-Stars, one 2-Star,
three Gold and seven Silver awards. Our 13 Gold award haul, when
translated to 65% of all awards, is the highest percentage among
companies that sent at least 20 to 28 teams to NQCC. It is evident
that the quality of our QC projects is improving and teams are more
skilled at using the QC tools to solve their problems.
- 3 QC teams from CGH also took part in
the MOH Wits Convention in September 2002 and were awarded 1 Gold
and 2 Silver.
- 2 QC teams represented MOH in the PS21
ExCel Convention in November 2002 and both teams were awarded the
highest honour of 3-Stars (a total of 4 3-stars awards was given
out throughout the 4 days convention). PS Health and PS Trade and
Industry were present in both presentations.
- 2 QC teams were invited to MOH's Innovation
Day to present their projects.
- 1 QC team was selected from among 1000
QC teams to take part in the National QC competition in Dec 2002.
- Efficare team received a 10-Star award
and was sponsored by CGH to attend a mini-course at the 14th Annual
Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care, Florida.
