By: Azman Zakaria
SERDANG, 6 August - The health check-up system, i-MeX (In House Medical Check Up Express), at the University Health Centre (PKU) is not only able to expedite the registration of new students, but also able to identify students with health issues early on for follow-up actions that will help students and the university, while preserving student health information and its confidentiality.
In addition to saving time during the student registration process, the system developed by PKU, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) through the Lean Management Project managed to generate income for PKU and UPM besides saving human resource and human resource costs due to the reduction in staffing needs for overtime.
i-MeX was first implemented as a pilot project in 2016 during the registration of 1,000 foundation students, and it managed to shorten the duration of health examination from one month to one week.
All the information and details required could also be standardised besides obtaining complete data on the same day.
The innovation system, i-MeX, embraced the Gold Award at the Regional Level Team-Excellence Convention (RTEx) 2018 for the Regional Territories, participated by 63 government and private agencies. It was organised by the Malaysian Productivity Council (MPC).
The group leader who developed i-MeX, Dr. Suhyna Mohamad Sulaiman, said the implementation of the system would not only make things easier for PKU and the University but also for students as it facilitates the registration process for new student enrolment into UPM.
She said that prior to the implementation of i-MeX, all PKU staff had to proceed to all 17 colleges to manage the health examination forms whether these forms are complete or incomplete for about 3,000 undergraduate students, which also incurred overtime allowance payment to staff including working on public holidays to accomplish the task.
Dr. Suhyna, who is also the Head of PKU Outpatient Services, said that at the same time there were many incomplete documentations and information received such as no X-ray report or film and incomplete urine tests.
She said PKU has to identify and recall the student concerned to complete the health examination process because it was necessary for the student to repeat the diagnostic test. This would cause some disturbance to lecture attendance.
“Through this in-house i-MeX screening, the documentation will be proper and uniform. In addition, through the online pre-registration, students need to declare their health status. This will help PKU identify those who need immediate medical attention before they even arrive at UPM.
“We will make health checks and if students are diagnosed with a disease, we will inform and advise the faculty and college for further action appropriate to the health condition of the student,” she said, while explaining that international students are also required to undergo health checks at PKU.
She said students have to undergo full medical examination at PKU to ensure their student health reports are valid. All health information is kept confidential in compliance with the Information Security Management System (ISMS).
“The duration of this health examination has been reduced to one month and a half from three months for undergraduate students involving approximately 3,000 students, while for foundation students the duration has been reduced to one week from one month previously,” she said.
Regarding the Gold Award won in RTEx 2018 for the Regional Territories, Dr. Suhyna said that she did not expect the victory in view of stiff competition from other government and private agencies. However, she is grateful for being able to uphold the name of UPM.
The group received certificate and trophy presented by the MPC Director-General, Dato’ Mohd Razali Hussain.
The achievement of the gold award qualifies PKU UPM to participate in the national innovation award at Sunway Convention Centre at the end of the year.
Other group members are Dr. Latinah Mohamad, Sr. Kamariah Md Diah, Sr. Salmah Uzairi, Hazri Mohd Ghazani, Sharul Afzan Mohd Said, JM. Nor Azlina Mohd Amin, Lailatul Badariah Buharan Nordin, Nur Wahida Abdul Rahman, and P. Mageswary. - UPM
