GHP July 2017

6 GHP / July 2017 , PCMC has the most comprehensive services and specialists in the areas of paediatrics and orthopaedics and provides a wide range of surgical specialties that range from general surgery, upper gastrointestinal surgery, colorectal surgery, minimal access (laparoscopic) including bariatric surgery, hepatobilliary surgery, breast and endocrine surgery to sentinel node biopsy, ear, nose and throat, cochlear implant surgery, head & neck surgery, neurosurgery, orthopaedic & spine surgery, ophthalmology and oral health- related surgeries. The hospital is also noted for its internal medicine, neurology, psychiatry, allergy & immunology, haematology and transfusion medicine, rheumatology, endocrinology, digestive diseases, respiratory, sleep lab and geriatric medicine. PCMC is also well equipped with robotic surgery and is the first and leading private hospital in Malaysia to have a da Vinci robotics suite. It is currently mainly used in the fields of urology, gynaecology and ENT. There is also the Burns Unit at Prince Court Medical Centre (PCMC) which is the first burn care facility in a private setting in Malaysia. The Burns Unit is a 4-bedded facility which caters to high as well as low dependency patients and is fully equipped with tertiary care support to handle major burn cases and is equipped with the following comprehensive equipment: • Air Fluidised Therapy Bed (AFTB) • Shower Panel and Trolley • Butterfly Bath In addition to handling all types of cases including the very complex and complicated, Prince Court Medical Centre provides a dedicated one stop wellness screening centre that offers health screening packages as well as customised wellness screening. Prince Court Medical Centre also operates a 24- hour Emergency and Primary Care Department, inclusive of ambulance services. PCMC operates a Total Hospital Information System (THIS) that seamlessly manages all patient information from admission to discharge. Prince Court Medical Centre is also the only private hospital in Malaysia with a HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) Level 6 Certification. This means that PCMC is able to manage the critical component for a closed-loop medication administration that the hospital has now achieved; a system that uses handheld barcode readers to scans a patient’s wristband and medication to validate information with the patient’s electronic health record. These validation steps provide full protection of patient safety in medication delivery, without compromising patient privacy. A closed-loop medication administration is defined as “the tight coupling of data flows (integration) between Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE), pharmacy, automated medication dispensing, and electronic medication administration applications, along with the integration of bar coding/radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to identify the patient, nurse, and medication, which is necessary to automate the ‘five rights’ for all medications given to patients for acute care services.” Mr Chong explains that the vision of being a leading healthcare provider in Asia is what drives the ethos for the work the company does and he tells us more about the firm’s goals for the future. PCMC’s mission is to remain committed to providing quality and family-centred healthcare for the community, and its values include being warm, ethical, respectful and energetic. Of course, all of this is not possible without the support of a fantastic team. “A big part of the team are nurses, clinical support and consultants” tells Mr Chong. “They are the key people who are responsible in taking care of the patients. The other half of the Company Prince Court Medical Centre Web Address: www.princecourt.com Address: No 39, Jalan Kia Peng, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Telephone: 603-2160 0000 team lend support in ensuring that everything goes smoothly in delivering our services.” There are challenges ahead for Malaysian Healthcare. The rising cost of healthcare due to the weakening of the Ringgit (as medical equipment, accessories, implants and medication are mainly all imported) as well as the general economic slowdown are the main challenges. “As a result of this, more Malaysians are turning to the Public healthcare,” explains Mr. Chong. “For 2017, we foresee the same challenges and maybe even more competition as more private healthcare facilities open up but with more patients turning to the public healthcare. However, with the weakening Ringgit, there is also an opportunity to attract more foreign patients to PCMC. We currently see an influx of foreign patients from Indonesia, USA, UK, Australia, Libya, Arab, Somalia, Japan, Bangladesh and lately, Singaporeans and even Expats working in nearby Asean countries.” However the future remains bright for PCMC, with Malaysians still looking to PCMC as their top-of-mind hospital. PCMC is well known amongst Malaysians, Expats, VIPs, medical travellers and International patients from abroad. However, the majority of our patients are still Malaysians. PCMC is a Malaysian-owned Hospital and locals should be able to take advantage of our services and should not have to travel to Singapore or overseas for first-class healthcare. “Many international hospital industry leaders would like to use this premise as a benchmark to put programmes into place; when new hospitals develop, they want to look at how we do things.”