The aim is to address a common gripe - that the typical waiting time at a public hospital could drag on up to three hours.
For patients such as Madam Teo Mi Hwang -- who has been with Tan Tock Seng Hospital for more than 20 years -- a typical visit used to take about an hour.
This includes time taken for registration, consultation, treatment and finally, bill payment.
But a one-stop shop concept at the hospital's new Clinic 5A now cuts down Madam Teo's waiting time by some 35 per cent.
"Last time, when we go down, we have to take a queue number, then you will go... to the pharmacy, then they will ask for your IC number and other details," Madam Teo said.
"After taking the medication, you go to the counter outside and pay the money and there's a long queue. Now, it's different. It's very fast."
The new clinic integrates various disciplines such as medical oncology, haematology, general medicine and palliative care.
The hospital said it sought feedback from doctors, nurses, IT staff, patients and even studied designs of hospitals in US before planning the new layout.
Planning and renovation works for the new Clinic 5A began in 2009 and was officially launched at the end of last year.
This spares patients the hassle of moving around the hospital to visit various clinics.
Tan Tock Seng Hospital chief operating officer Eugene Fidelis Soh said: "We have designed our clinics so our patients will find it easy to use.
"So we will follow simple steps in the clinic journey in an 'M flow pattern'. This will prevent congestion of patients and choke points within the clinics.
"We have also redesigned the number of consultation rooms within the clinic to create for more capacity.
"This means, while the rooms are smaller, what we have done is to optimise the layout of the furniture to promote better communication between the doctor and patient and to make it easy for the patient to orientate themselves.
The clinic has some 26 consultation and treatment rooms now, as compared to the previous 19 consultation rooms.
As such, doctors are able to carry out more sessions with patients.
For example, for general medicine, some 1,260 patients get to be treated now, an increase of about 180 patients, compared to the past.
Pharmacy technicians are on hand to verify patients' medication needs before they head for the pharmacy.
Meanwhile, Patient Service Associates facilitate appointment bookings and ensure patients have enough medication till their next visit.
Dr Eugene said: "For example, if the appointment is made for the patients in a month and the doctor's prescription is given only for two weeks, this would lead to the patients not having enough medication before his next appointment.
"So having the Patient Service Associate to make the appointment with the doctor will allow them to synchronise this better".
The hospital also features a self-registration kiosk which helps patients better understand what they have to do next at a clinic.
All patients need to do, is to scan their IC over at the kiosk, to be issued a ticket which will list all the appointments they have for that day, based on their medical condition.'
Tan Tock Seng Hospital said it hopes to roll out the concept to the entire hospital by the end of next year.
Meanwhile, a similar model is also in place at Changi General Hospital.
Its breast centre, for one, houses consultation clinics, with radiology suites, that enables patients to screen and receive results of their diagnostic tests, on the same day.
Called the Breast Centre @ Changi, the centre also has psychiatrists and psychologists on standby to offer counselling services when needed.
Its Sports Medicine Centre is another example of this multi-disciplinary approach.
Sports physicians, physiotherapists, sports orthopaedic surgeons and dieticians are all located in one centre for patients to have all their sports medicine needs taken care of.
Its X-Ray services at the subsidised Orthopaedic Specialist Clinic have also been co-located so that patients don't need to move between departments when they need to do X-Rays, which is a very common diagnostic procedure for them.
Over at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, its eye and diabetes clinics were built on the same level as the department of geriatric medicine.
The aim is to make it easier for the elderly to access the various services.
- CNA/wk
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