Healthcare innovation from the inside out: Leveraging the human capital system at Tan Tock Seng Hospital

• Main Authors: GOH, Kenneth T., SMITH, Richard Raymond, TAN, Cher Heng, DHEVARAJULU, David
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2020
• Subjects: Healthcare; Innovation; COVID-19; agility; Strategic Management Policy
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/6793; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/7792/viewcontent/9_AMI14_Healthcare__1_.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The global pandemic has strained healthcare systems around the world, yet some providers have been able to adapt better and more swiftly than others. One such example is Singapore’s Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH). When Covid-19 broke out, TTSH had to strike a balance between reducing business-as-usual (BAU) services and increasing outbreak-coping capacity. The latter meant that the hospital needed to build isolation rooms, and effectively ramp up its intensive care unit (ICU) capacity and capabilities to adapt to a rapidly evolving global pandemic. Furthermore, hospital management had to make an active push towards ensuring adequate supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), given the global shortage and uncertainties over the duration of the pandemic. So how could a healthcare organisation that typically prioritises reliability and safety manage to adapt so nimbly to the Covid-19 crisis? If we look closely at TTSH, we will find that the answer lies in a very different healthcare management orientation: one that is focused on innovating with an agile mindset. This orientation was not implemented overnight, but cultivated over the years through a multitude of initiatives led by the Centre for Healthcare Innovation (CHI).