KPJ Healthcare Bhd, Malaysia’s largest private healthcare provider, is today least perturbed by the consequences of movement restriction.
This is because it has ‘mastered’ the wonders of safe-yet-effective patient engagement via virtual platforms, thanks to Google Meet.
The private hospital chain has proactively been utilising Google Meet – and has even adopted Google Workspace last year – to ensure seamless engagement and interaction with patients and caregivers alike.
In essence, KPJ Healthcare is constantly exploring innovative ways on how to improve patient experience throughout its network of 29 hospitals nationwide.
It is already running a teleconsultation service as an alternative platform for existing patients, especially those who are not able to travel or have recurring follow-up appointments and top-up medication needs.
Google Meet provides a practical way to provide vital ongoing healthcare services. This is practical not just during the movement control order (MCO) but also in the future with an inevitable transformed health landscape.
A key benefit of Google Meet lies in its user friendliness: it doesn’t require users to install any additional files.
With only simple e-mail instructions, all that patients have to do is open the e-mail with the invite, click on a link to the meeting, and then click on the session to join.
A big difference from regular meetings, however, is that all teleconsultation sessions must be recorded to comply with the KPJ’s internal policies and procedures for the protection of both the medical consultant and the patient.
With Meet’s built-in functions and Workspace’s unlimited storage, KPJ never runs out of space during a session.
Secured patient data handling
In healthcare, there is an even higher emphasis on security controls, especially in terms of patient-doctor consultation sessions.
“Very much like a regular consultation, medical consultations need to be highly personalised and patient data must be handled on a need-to-know basis only,” KPJ Healthcare’s chief technology officer Yap Chee Wai told Focus Malaysia.
This means safety from digital inference. In this regard, Google Meet, Forms and Sites rise up to the occasion by providing a safe way to interact with and serve patients while maintaining patient confidentiality and confidence.
According to Yap, the transition is in place. Today, KPJ Healthcare employees use Calendar and Gmail for scheduling events and email communication, Docs and Sheets to collaborate on documents in real time, and Google Meet for both internal and external meetings online.
Many employees also use Forms and Sites to collect customer feedback and run surveys related to their services.
Future of digital healthcare
KPJ Healthcare has big plans ahead. It is working towards turning its brick and mortar business into a hybrid one with digital as a new business arm.
Future plans include a digital platform for customers that will integrate its web and mobile applications for remote diagnostics and monitoring.
As new tools become available, KPJ Healthcare is keen to explore their uses for patients to have a 24/7 view of their health, and a cloud-based approach is key to making this happen.
“Our mission now is to consolidate all of our data in one place and ensure that applications are cloud enabled. Having our collaboration platform on Google Workspace is one of the first steps to making this vision possible,” added Yap. – March 4, 2021
Photo credit: Pandpstock001/Canva
