Pop-Up Screening Center Key in Singapore’s COVID-19 Battle

By Greg Golden

As COVID-19 began its spread across Singapore, the focus was on speedy diagnosis by the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) and Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS)—the national technology agency for public healthcare.  Delayed diagnoses for any potentially infected patients would put them and the broader population at higher risk.

In anticipation of rising workloads related to COVID-19 cases, NCID ran a Disease Outbreak Response System Condition review, which triggered the implementation of its Business Process Continuity plan. It also highlighted an urgent need for additional IT equipment and support for expanded hospital operations.  These operations had to be 24/7, with dedicated IT personnel in place to deal with the system demands and to support medical workers. 

In one such emergency expansion, NCID and Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), the main hospital supporting the nation’s outbreak response, set up a Screening Centre for patients who presented with possible COVID-19 symptoms. 

The Screening Centre alone needed almost 100 laptops, network printers, patient ID printers, and bar code scanners, all configured to the hospital LAN which connects them to other medical equipment such as X-Ray machines. By feeding registration information directly into the hospital’s systems, the Screening Centre at NCID could speed time to care and enhance patient data tracing for use in current and future health records.

IBM Services helped quickly expand IT capacity at the pop-up screening center in Singapore.

With the help of IHiS’s long-time partner IBM Services, the Screening Centre’s IT systems were up and running within 24 hours. 

As more patients came, the Screening Centre had to expand its capacity. Additional machines had to be configured to new Wireless Access Points to ensure wider WiFi coverage, as well as shared folder access so hospital staff could access, store and share vital patient information across the entire hospital system. IBM Services was able to get the additional IT systems that were required for the Screening Centre’s expanded operations up and running by the planned start date.

“Ensuring Singapore's healthcare institutions have the critical IT infrastructure they need to function during this world health crisis allows us to focus on what matters most – our patients” said Huan Boon Kean, Group CIO, National Healthcare Group,  which oversees TTSH, its oldest and largest hospital. “IBM is a true partner, one that understands the critical nature of our role in providing healthcare to the nation and is working with us in very tangible ways to meet the challenges of this constantly evolving situation.”

The IBM Services team continues to work with the hospital CIO and team to identify critical areas that require additional IT help and prioritize the deployment of necessary IT equipment to enable healthcare staff to meet the demands of the current critical environment.

“Singapore's Public healthcare system and workers are the heroes to the nation, and the IBM team is proud that we are able to support them” said Priscilla Benedict, IBM Senior Client Partner Executive. 

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