The National University Hospital (NUH) is one hospital that has re-designed the career pathway for Patient Service Associates (PSA) and Patient Care Associates (PCA) to provide more opportunities for them to develop professionally by introducing a new executive job scale.
Following promotion to executive level, PSAs and PCAs will have more training and leadership roles. They are also involved in projects that help to improve workflow and ultimately patient experience. The salary scale for PSAs and PCAs ranges from $1,250-$3,800; and $2,400-$5,500 for executives, depending on individual work experience and qualifications.
Ms V Inthira who previously worked as a PSA now works as a Service Executive. She said: “I like being at the frontline, serving and helping patients. I am very happy that in my new job scope I have the chance to help train my younger colleagues, share my experience with them, imparting my knowledge. Hopefully, through all these, I am also able to help develop a ‘succesor’ who can continue to deliver many pleasant experiences for our patients.
The hospital has seen an eight per cent drop in attrition rate within this group of healthcare support staff from 2010 to 2011. Over the years,NUH has also rolled out different projects including the use of assistive devices such as the Inventory Data Collection system using Automated Identification and Data Capture technology which has helped simplify workflow. It now halves the number of steps involved in processing invoices received from vendors. The use of these devices has helped the hospital save up to $19,000 annually and also helped to upgrade the IT skills of staff.
“I can do the work faster now. I am happy to have learnt more IT skills because of the new system,”said 62-year-old Senior Store Keeper Chua Teck Siang.
