A policy ethnography study of a Singapore regional health system on its governance adaptations and associated challenges as a project organisation to implement Healthier Singapore.

Objectives: Project organisations reflect a modern and non-bureaucratic form of organising public-sector activities, which promises innovation, entrepreneurship, and order and control to bring about change. This study seeks to investigate the project organisation Singapore Health Services (SingHealth) Region Health System (RHS)'s approach to implementing the Healthier Singapore (HSG) strategy, including models of governance and perceptions of RHS leads, identify the challenges facing the RHS, and to draw insights into the conditions necessary for using project organisation as a policy tool in policy implementation. Study design: We adopted a policy ethnography approach to answering the research question. Methods: The approach involved: (1) non-participant observation with fieldnotes taken during meetings, events, programme activities, and conferences concerning SingHealth and HSG implementation; (2) analysis of 52 organisational documents; and (3) interviews with 21 senior SingHealth leaders from the RHS Executive Committee, involved in envisioning and overseeing the production of RHS projects to align with the HSG strategy (March to September 2022). Results: Evidence demonstrates the presence of multiple governance and interactive governance in HSG implementation, including legitimising the RHS as the project organisation; engaging the private corporations; incorporating the citizens; and working with non-governmental organisations. However, the RHS faced many challenges, ranging from governance, workforce, financing, IT infrastructure and care models, problem definition, primary care and legacy issues, knowledge management, and being pandemic-informed in its delivery. Conclusion: The RHS will need to address these challenges through the necessary constitutive, directive, and operational actions, and interactive governance to enhance its institutional capacity to implement the HSG Strategy.

Social Work Competencies in an Academic Medical Center: The Case of Singapore Health Services.

In 2014, the Singapore Health Services (SingHealth), an academic medical center, implemented a dual-level competency framework for medical social workers; it comprises 23 behavioral descriptors and six competency clusters at the general level and 30 behavioral descriptors and six competency clusters at the advanced level. This study adopted a qualitative approach to explore the experience among medical social workers with supervisory roles in the implementation of this competency framework. Findings showed that implementation of the competency framework lifted professional standards and image of the profession. The competency framework also helped foster stronger networks, trust, and partnerships among SingHealth organizations. Contextual features that influenced its implementation were as follows: workforce capacity and capability, management support, opportunities, training road maps, and staff's personal life stage. Operationalizing terms used in the competency framework and specifying the validity period of each competency domain within the framework were found to be crucial to its implementation.

War on Diabetes in Singapore: a policy analysis.

BACKGROUND: In April 2016, the Singapore Ministry of Health (MOH) declared War on Diabetes (WoD) to rally a whole-of-nation effort to reduce diabetes burden in the population. This study aimed to explore how this policy has been positioned to bring about changes to address the growing prevalence of diabetes, and to analyse the policy response and the associated challenges involved. METHODS: This qualitative study, using Walt and Gilson's policy triangle framework, comprised analysis of 171 organizational documents on the WoD, including government press releases, organizational archives, YouTube videos, newspaper reports and opinion editorials. It also involved interviews with 31 policy actors, who were policy elites and societal policy actors. RESULTS: Findings showed that the WoD policy generated a sense of unity and purpose across most policy actors. Policy actors were cognisant of the thrusts of the policy and have begun to make shifts to align their interests with the government policy. Addressing those with diabetes directly is essential to understanding their needs. Being clear on who the intended targets are and articulating how the policy seeks to support the identified groups will be imperative. Issues of fake news, unclear messaging and lack of regulation of uncertified health providers were other identified problem areas. High innovation, production and marketing costs were major concerns among food and beverage enterprises. CONCLUSION: While there was greater public awareness of the need to combat diabetes, continuing dialogues with the various clusters of policy actors on the above issues will be necessary. Addressing the various segments of the policy actors and their challenges in response to the WoD would be critical.

Perception survey of crisis and emergency risk communication in an acute hospital in the management of COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore.

BACKGROUND: Emergency risk communication is a critical component in emergency planning and response. It has been recognised as significant for planning for and responding to public health emergencies. While there is a growing body of guidelines and frameworks on emergency risk communication, it remains a relatively new field. There has also been limited attention on how emergency risk communication is being performed in public health organisations, such as acute hospitals, and what the associated challenges are. This article seeks to examine the perception of crisis and emergency risk communication in an acute hospital in response to COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore and to identify its associated enablers and barriers. METHODS: A 13-item Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) Survey, based on the US Centers for Disease and Control (CDC) CERC framework, was developed and administered to hospital staff during February 24-28, 2020. The survey also included an open-ended question to solicit feedback on areas of CERC in need of improvement. Chi-square test was used for analysis of survey data. Thematic analysis was performed on qualitative feedback. RESULTS: Of the 1154 participants who responded to the survey, most (94.1%) reported that regular hospital updates on COVID-19 were understandable and actionable. Many (92.5%) stated that accurate, concise and timely information helped to keep them safe. A majority (92.3%) of them were clear about the hospital's response to the COVID-19 situation, and 79.4% of the respondents reported that the hospital had been able to understand their challenges and address their concerns. Sociodemographic characteristics, such as occupation, age, marital status, work experience, gender, and staff's primary work location influenced the responses to hospital CERC. Local leaders within the hospital would need support to better communicate and translate hospital updates in response to COVID-19 to actionable plans for their staff. Better communication in executing resource utilization plans, expressing more empathy and care for their staff, and enhancing communication channels, such as through the use of secure text messaging rather than emails would be important. CONCLUSION: CERC is relevant and important in the hospital setting to managing COVID-19 and should be considered concurrently with hospital emergency response domains.

Learning from elsewhere: Integrated care development in Singapore.

The Singapore healthcare sector faces a myriad of challenges, including a rapidly ageing population, an increasing burden of chronic disease, and the rising cost of healthcare. The Ministry of Health has called for a restructuring and transformation of the current model of care to one that is more accessible, affordable and of higher quality, by the year 2020. In achieving quality health care, care integration through the Regional Health Systems (RHS) is seen as one approach to improving health and social outcomes, increasing healthcare utilisation and increasing satisfaction with healthcare providers. We conducted a qualitative study involving 31 elites from five policy agent clusters, and analysed organisational documents, to explore how the concepts of policy transfer and policy translation, explain the ways in which integrated care was introduced and developed in Singapore, with a focus on the SingHealth (SGH Campus) Regional Health System (RHS). The findings demonstrate that the development of integrated care is mediated by multi-scalar and multi-site networks and contextual features. The multiple and pluralistic interpretations of 'integrated care' and 'policy' are contested spaces or domains requiring further negotiation and debate. Institutional issues in the SingHealth (SGH Campus) RHS, and in the private and ILTC sectors highlight the need to consider spatial and temporal factors, and the multiplexities in the embedding of integrated care policy.

Risk mitigation of shared electronic records system in campus institutions: medical social work practice in singapore.

In 2013, the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) Campus initiated a shared electronic system where patient records and documentations were standardized and shared across institutions within the Campus. The project was initiated to enhance quality of health care, improve accessibility, and ensure integrated (as opposed to fragmented) care for best outcomes in our patients. In mitigating the risks of ICT, it was found that familiarity with guiding ethical principles, and ensuring adherence to regulatory and technical competencies in medical social work were important. The need to negotiate and maneuver in a large environment within the Campus to ensure proactive integrative process helped.

Securing and sustaining employment: concerns of HIV patients in Singapore.

Employment sustainability is one of the most pressing issues inflicting people living with HIV (PLHIV). A qualitative approach was used to elucidate the perceived challenges in sustaining their employment and the perceived barriers in re-entering the workforce for HIV patients. In-depth interviews were conducted with 16 patients from an acute hospital in Singapore. The main challenges raised in sustaining employment were: (1) ability to ensure secrecy of diagnosis from employers, (2) ability to secure financial resources for treatment and sustenance, (3) ability to ensure stable health to meet job requirements, (4) ability to cognitively sit with the concerns of uncertainty and limitations in career, and (5) ability to work through discriminatory workplace practices. The perceived barriers in gaining workforce re-entry were: (1) fear of pre-employment medical screening and potential discriminatory practices at workplace, (2) concerns over health (frequent hospital admissions, physical weakness, and existing medical co-morbidities), and (3) psychosocial challenges (unstable accommodation, older age, financial issues, and trade skills limitation). The overarching factor that influences the success of sustaining and securing an employment among HIV patients is secrecy of the diagnosis. The individuals' health status, financial status and access to healthcare, and other psychosocial challenges further compound the issue.