21 HOSPITALS IN MALAYSIA TO BE INSTALLED WITH DIGITAL FILING SYSTEM

KLANG (Malaysia), July 20 (Bernama) -- A total of 121 of 135 government
hospitals will be installed with digital filing system to speed up the retrieval
of patient records, Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai said.

"I notice that there are still many hospitals which keep their records
manually and spent about 15 minutes to look for them. The time taken is too
long.

"If we use digital filing, we can retrieve the information accurately and
instantly," he told a news conference after visiting the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah
Hospital (HTAR) here Monday.

Liow said a detailed planning should be carried out before installing the
system due to its high cost.

Old hospitals like the Kuala Lumpur Hospital and HTAR would be installed
with the system first if the government decided to proceed with it, he added.
-- MORE

LIOW-HOSPITAL 2 (LAST) KLANG

He said that until now, only 14 hospitals in Klang Valley were installed
with the system including Serdang, Selayang, Putrajaya, Ampang and Sungai Buloh
hospitals.

Asked on the time frame for the installation, Liow said, it was an ongoing
process.

On the cost to install the system, he said, it had yet to be ascertained.

"It takes time to migrate from a manual system to a digital system. In HTAR
alone, 14 cabins are being used for storing medical records... this is a huge
amount of records," he said.

-- BERNAMA