Siloam Hospitals is actively looking at utilising the power of big data to its advantage, to drive more informed decision-making and precise health care. Siloam Hospitals serves more than 2 million patients annually.It is Indonesia's most progressive and innovative healthcare provider, currently operating 20 hospitals with over 8,000 doctors, nurses and medical personnel.
So far, Siloam Hospitals has invested in tele-medicine and other formats of digital communication to help establish a ‘Hub and Spoke’ delivery capability. This aims to give access to the best clinical specialization resources at Siloam’s Centres of Excellence as well as its international networks, for every rural hospital. This has reduced cost and increases the community’s access to a wide range of highly specialized medical services.
This past week, OpenGov had the chance to speak to Mr. Benedict Sulaiman, Head of ICT Operations and Pipeline, Siloam Hospitals, Indonesia about what he is working on and what will he be looking forward to in 2016.
Siloam Hospital is working on standardizing and consolidating their records systems into one platform. Mr. Sulaiman describes this as one of his biggest projects as the activity as challenging. “It is quite difficult because we are managing to do this while directing the management to accept this as well,” Mr. Sulaiman told us.
The issue is that they operate multiple platforms across the Siloam Hospital network. Once they are able to consolidate these services, they will be able to create separate channels through a solitary system.
We went on to ask Mr. Sulaiman how they are using data analytics to improve their clinical decision making. He told us that while working with data analytics, the most important thing to have is a standardized system from which to derive insights from. They are working on settling the consolidation of these platforms which holds them from using data insights to the best of their facility until this is done.
As of now, it can be seen that the results of these analytics insights are biased or show misinformation. This is due to the multiple networks not being consolidated, as of yet. “We must engage the management and make them understand, in order for us to reach this level we must complete consolidation. Otherwise, the requests for data analytics insights, cannot be done,” Mr. Sulaiman told us.
Change management, with respect to IT integration throughout health care, is not an easy job. Convincing management of what technology is necessary is often the first step towards integration. This requires the IT professionals to come up with a thorough list of benefits as they pertain to the betterment of the company as a whole.
In the healthcare industry, the same applies. As Mr. Sulaiman explains, “We have to convince the management of how these technologies will impact the hospital operations. When there is a great investment required, this threshold must be passed.”
By explaining the benefits of IT utilisation in health care facilities to Siloam Hospitals management, Mr. Sulaiman has started to make some headway. He has found that the best strategy to standardise these systems and show management this progress, is by working on each task one-by-one.
As Mr. Sulaiman attended our recent dialogue on cyber security, he was quite interested in sharing his viewpoint on what security means to him. Security in the health care industry is crucial, as personal health data and records are at stake. Mr. Sulaiman emphasises the need to reassess which sets of data are most crucial to protect with strong and reliable security solutions.
Siloam Hospitals has set a goal of having 40 hospitals in operation by 2017. This will provide the group with a total capacity of 10,000 beds, receiving over twelve million patients annually. Aside from hospitals, Siloam Hospitals group has plans to build health clinics across Indonesia in order to better serve the Indonesian public.
To meet this growing demand, they must increase their capacity to serve patients. This can be done through the use of data analytics insights, and once their platforms are consolidated, they will have a more robust body of information to work from.
The demand and challenge to develop and offer equitable access to quality and affordable healthcare across Indonesia continues to grow. The vision of Siloam Hospitals to provide International Quality, Reach, Scale, and Godly Compassion. Through the integration of security and advanced service delivery, Siloam Hospitals may soon establish themselves as a leader in the Indonesian Health Care industry.