Two tertiary hospitals under the National University Health System, the flagship unit National University Hospital and the Alexandra Hospital, and the aged care-focused community hospital St. Luke's Hospital are set to move to a new EMR system on 26 February. 

WHAT IT'S ABOUT

An initiative by Singapore’s Ministry of Health, the Next Generation Electronic Medical Record (NGEMR) is an integrated system that will harmonise processes across SLH and two of the country's public health clusters – NUHS and the National Healthcare Group (NHG). Organisations joining the system will be able to view patients' test reports like blood tests and x-rays and investigate them virtually without having to request them from other institutions.

NGEMR differs from the National Electronic Health Record (NEHR) as it records the entire patient journey from admission to discharge and follow-ups, including both medical and administrative data. Selected information from the NGEMR is sent to the NEHR, which aggregates and displays a summary of the patient’s health records across different healthcare providers.

Security measures are incorporated into the new system to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of patient data, including data encryption at rest and in transit, role-based access control, two-factor authentication for system administrators, anti-malware and advanced threat protection, intrusion detection and prevention, and automated monitoring to detect suspicious activity. Additionally, all medical staff accessing data from the NGEMR are bound by law and professional ethics to keep those strictly confidential.

WHY IT MATTERS

The NGEMR system will enable a "more efficient care management and delivery," such that it can help bring down costs and the need for repeat tests when patients switch providers. Providers will be able to record content in a "more cohesive and efficient manner," leading to improved reporting across the two clusters. With NGEMR, there is also a lesser need for each cluster to maintain their legacy systems. 

THE LARGER TREND

The NGEMR was first set up at the JurongHealth Campus in April 2020, followed by a second round of implementations at the National University Polyclinics between September and November that year. It was also rolled out across the six polyclinics under NHG from end-February to May last year and at the Kallang Polyclinic in October. It is expected that the new EMR system will be fully onboarded in both clusters by next year.