Nurses at Singapore’s General Hospital can now “bid” to look after a discharged patient at home, in their own time, through a new mobile app.
The Match-A-Nurse scheme is designed to pair up discharged patients with a nurse living nearby, who is both ready and able to provide the services needed, such as wound dressing.
It works just like a taxi booking – a patient’s request is registered in the app, and nurses who successfully “bid” for a job are alerted via text message. After the visit, the nurse simply updates the observations in the app. Charges for the service start from $13.95.
Help at hand
119 nurses have already signed up for the pilot program, which has been running since April, and Dr Ang Seng Bin, the head of the service, says it will “greatly benefit patients who are wheelchair or bed-bound.”
“Traditionally, home nursing involves a nurse travelling from home to home. To boost efficiency, we wanted to test the concept of tapping nurses to perform tasks near their homes,” he said.
According to Singapore’s Healthcare Manpower Plan 2020, patients who have used the app say it gives them comfort that they can receive care from a professional nurse at home and they don’t need to go to the hospital as frequently.
With the scheme proving a success, SingHealth now hopes to roll out the app to its Women and Children’s Hospital too.
