Singapore National Eye Centre

The Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC), which achieved approval from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore to convert its physical financial records into Evidence Act certified digital images, is now reaping the benefits of managing its vital records electronically.

In 2003, SNEC, a member of Singapore Health Services (SingHealth), moved onto an electronic document archival platform to manage its financial records as well as other vital documents such as medical and human resource records. These were all converted from paper records using SCS/Trusted Hub's strict imaging process that is fully compliant with the Evidence Act (EA) of Singapore. This means that the electronic images have the same legal status as their paper counterparts.

"SNEC and SingHealth are continually looking forward to leverage on technology in an innovative and effective manner, with the aim of reaching higher levels of patient service and quality care. Making our documents electronic and accessible to our healthcare givers is a step in this direction," said Dr Patrick Chia, Manager, Client Services of SingHealth.

With a proper framework installed for total trusted records management, organisations stand to gain from increased information reliability, record management efficiency and business continuity.

SNEC now enjoys increased productivity, as paper was very difficult to access and to safe-keep. The logistical effort needed to store these paper records, as well as the human resources needed to manage them, was overwhelming.

SNEC also has an effective and efficient healthcare business continuity plan with the outsourcing of records conversion and management to Trusted Hub. With the electronic equivalent of paper records, there is no fear of unintentional destruction or misplacement of paper records. This is critical to the efficacy of a medical institute where swift and easy access of records is important.

"Prior to the conversion into electronic records, our Finance Department staff had to retrieve past records manually and this was time consuming. Now we are able to retrieve the archived documents easily and we have more space", said Ms Grace Lim, Chief Financial Officer, SNEC.