By Sia Ling Xin

BUKIT Batok Polyclinic has become the first polyclinic to go paperless, making health care more convenient and safer for patients.

Under the electronic medical records (EMR) system, patients' medical conditions and history are recorded in an electronic database called Electronic Clinical Documentation (E-Notes), instead of on paper.

With this system, clinic assistants no longer have to waste time searching for patients' files, and patients now wait half an hour less than they would previously have had to.

The system allows prescriptions to be made online, which reduces the risk of medication being prescribed wrongly because of illegible handwriting.

Doctors can also order laboratory tests and view the results online. The system highlights abnormal results, so that doctors can look into them immediately.

The EMR system will be implemented in all polyclinics and public hospitals here and, possibly, even private ones in future.

It will allow patients' records to be shared among health institutions, so that patients can go to any institution and receive the same level of care without tests being duplicated.

The system has been up at the National Healthcare Group's (NHG) Bukit Batok Polyclinic, since it re-opened in August after threemonths of renovation.

The eight other NHG polyclinics and nine run by Singapore Health Services already have parts of the system in place, and aim to be paperless in two years' time.

At Bukit Batok Polyclinic's official re-opening yesterday, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said that the EMRwill give doctors access to information that will "allow them to make timely decisions and interventions".

He called it "a major achievement" which will "make the care here safer and better".

lingxin@sph.com.sg

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