Quality improvement: experience of a sexually transmitted infection clinic in Singapore.
Over the past two years, the Department of Sexually Transmitted Infection Control Clinic (DSC) in Singapore has embarked on a programme to review and enhance its quality improvement programmes. A thorough review of its day-to-day operations was conducted, infection control processes and standard operating procedures. It capitalized on its use of computerized medical records to improve documentation and patient screening. DSC introduced risk-management protocols and revised patient, staff and workplace safety guidelines. These measures have resulted in benefits such as reduced prescription errors, fewer patient complaints and active clinical practice improvement programmes. In January 2008, DSC, along with its parent hospital the National Skin Centre, became the first ambulatory health-care facility in Singapore, and also among the first few outside the United States to be accredited by the Joint Commission International.
Tan
H H
HH
Department of STI Control, National Skin Centre, Singapore. hhtan@nsc.gov.sg
Soon
T
T
Chan
R K W
RK
D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012449:Safety; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control; D012846:Singapore