Singapore  :  SATA CommHealth has expanded its home care services to benefit recently discharged home bound patients. Its home care team will provide home nursing services such as feeding tube changes, wound dressings, medication reconciliation and education and supply of home care consumables.

To help more home bound patients tap on these services, SATA CommHealth signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) on 5th May 2015 to become part of TTSH’s network of community partners to ensure continuity of care for patients within the community.

Under this MOU, SATA CommHealth will take on direct referrals from TTSH’s home care initiatives namely its Post-Acute Care at Home (PACH) and Virtual Hospital (VH), where patients have had their acute medical conditions well stabilised but still require long-term care at home for their gradual recovery and chronic medical conditions.

Dr Eugene Fidelis Soh, Chief Executive Officer of Tan Tock Seng Hospital, said, “Given the poor mobility and long-term chronic complications of some of these patients, our collaboration with a like-minded partner in SATA will provide the close supervision patients need in their homes, so that their conditions remain stable, and the risk of re-admission is reduced. This synergy complements our motivation to keep our patients well and happy in their homes.”

Dr K Thomas Abraham, Chief Executive Officer of SATA CommHealth, commented: “Collaborating with TTSH has yielded many success stories in patient care. Our past programmes have also served the underprivileged and disadvantaged well. We are forging new ties with TTSH in this new but burgeoning area of healthcare. This MOU marks another milestone in our partnership with TTSH. Beyond home care services to support TTSH’s PACH and VH programmes, we look forward to growing our partnership into more areas like outpatient care for the elderly and chronic sick.”

The two organisations are exploring the feasibility of suitable geriatric and chronic disease patients to be referred to SATA’s Family Medicine Services for outpatient follow-up treatment.