Hospitals in Southeast Asia are raising the bar on their digital transformation as executives look to increase their technology spend in the coming years.
FINDINGS
Global management consultant LEK Consulting recently launched a questionnaire This involved 230 hospital leaders from Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore to understand their strategic priorities and challenges.
Over the next three years, hospitals in Southeast Asia, especially private hospitals, are expected to place a high priority on introducing new medical technologies and treatments “to improve service delivery and differentiate themselves from the competition.” Hospitals in the region are also focusing on improving staff safety.
They are also expected to increase investment and capacity in diagnostic imaging (54%), primary care (52%) and general surgery (51%) to meet growing healthcare demand.
The LEK report also noted an overall high implementation rate of digital healthcare solutions among Southeast Asian hospitals, especially in the areas of patient administration, patient information management and initial consultation.
As a region, they lag behind China and India when it comes to the adoption of patient information and data technologies. However, they are leading the way in Asia Pacific in implementing digital tools for remote consultation and disease management and prevention. They are also a regional leader when it comes to implementing digital solutions in treatment (such as AI-based clinical decision support tools) and post-discharge monitoring.
Hospital executives in Southeast Asia have highly regarded digital healthcare solutions that help provide better patient care and a new revenue stream for their hospitals, as well as increase staff satisfaction, workforce efficiency and capacity.
What remains a barrier to the wider adoption of digital solutions are concerns about patient privacy (60%) and the lack of talent to develop and implement these technologies (57%).
THE GREATER CONTEXT
The expectation of greater adoption of digital healthcare comes as both public and private hospitals in Southeast Asia become more optimistic about their financial prospects in the coming years. Based on the LEK survey, 57% of public hospital directors said they expect a budget surplus in the next three years, while 88% of their private hospital counterparts see high profit margins. In addition, about a third of all respondents said they were hopeful of a significant increase in capital expenditure of more than 5% in the coming years.