IHH Healthcare Singapore and Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) have entered a three-year partnership to enhance patient experience. Through Parkway College, a subsidiary of IHHSG, it aims to equip 80 IHHSG staff with service design thinking competencies to innovate and enhance services in healthcare settings.

The partnership follows a successful pilot in May 2022, which saw 21 IHHSG staff undergoing NYP’s Design Thinking & Job Redesign Business Transformation Programme. Post-training, NYP’s School of Design & Media further developed an idea into a full working prototype – a thematic and interactive toys vending machine at Parkway East Hospital’s A&E Department. This unique vending machine, featuring an experiential spatial design, made the A&E experience more pleasant for paediatric patients and their caregivers.

“Improving patient experience does not happen by chance, but by design. Equipping our healthcare and operations professionals with design thinking skills enable them to apply human-centered approaches to generate more innovative ideas and improve patient experience. Seeking medical help can be /distressing for patients but we can make the experience better with service delivery that is well-thought out and aligned to what patients really want,” says Ms Hui Hwa Koh-Minjoot, Vice President and Head, Allied Health and Patient Experience, IHHSG.

From 2023 to 2026, the collaboration will see design thinking knowledge and practical skills being incorporated as core competencies for service professionals at IHHSG. The training will also enable service professionals to integrate design thinking alongside established quality improvement tools in hospital projects and solutions.

As part of the MOU, NYP will further expand design thinking practices into the healthcare industry. The partnership will also enable NYP students to intern at IHHSG and gain practical experience by working alongside healthcare and operations professionals to apply design thinking practices.

Mr Russell Chan, Principal & CEO, Nanyang Polytechnic, said, “Through this partnership, we hope to develop and deepen design thinking capabilities of healthcare professionals at IHHSG and enhance the user experience of patients and their loved ones in a healthcare setting. We remain grateful for the support from industry partners like IHHSG in offering meaningful internship opportunities for our learners to apply their skills and knowledge in a real-world setting and deliver innovative solutions to solve everyday problems.”