SingHealth: Winning the war against diabetes

• Main Authors: KARNER, Markus, LANGE, Katharina, WONG, Adina
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2018
• Subjects: Value Agenda; Value Creation; Integrated Practice Unit; Healthcare Models; Healthcare Delivery; Integration of Care; Health Communication; Public Health
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cases_coll_all/207; https://cmp.smu.edu.sg/case/3521
• Institution: Singapore Management University

It was April 2017, and Dr Bee Yong Mong, Head of SingHealth Duke-NUS Diabetes Centre (diabetes SDDC), was deeply entrenched in fighting the war against diabetes in Singapore. The diabetes SDDC was formed in February 2015 and was housed at the Diabetes and Metabolism Centre (DMC) located at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH). It had two key aims: First, to reorganise diabetes treatments from a physician-centric to a patient-centred model; and second, to bring about better outcomes with regard to diabetes, not just in terms of clinical services, but also preventive health education and research. The diabetes SDDC had been operating for two years and had reached a steady state in terms of reorganising to become patient-focused and streamlining processes. Bee was eager to move on to the next phase of development in the treatment of diabetes. That would require looking at measurement and monitoring of data to evaluate the actual outcomes that the SDDC had brought about. The case is designed to make students think about what goes into providing quality healthcare for patients. Students will learn: • How to transition from classic “silo type” healthcare delivery to a more integrated approach • The key drivers to providing quality healthcare • The six aspects of value creation that an organisation can implement in order to deliver quality healthcare, and • How these six aspects are interdependent and mutually reinforce one another.