EMBRACING A NEW MISSION

From overseeing military operations to hospital operations, Colonel (COL) (NS) Peter Tay has gone from giving commands to bringing love.

Some say life begins at 45. For COL (NS) Peter Tay, that was the defining moment of his second career when he joined Changi General Hospital (CGH) as its Chief Operating Officer.

While most people in their 40s would not be keen on entering a sector they are unfamiliar with, COL (NS) Tay took up the challenge. From then on, the father-of-one was a changed man. He saw things differently, embraced his softer side and found a new sense of satisfaction.

"My family felt that I should go into healthcare as I came from a very poor family and had benefitted a lot from society. I'd also come to an age where money was no longer a big concern (so I looked at) how I could value-add to the organisation," said the former Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Regular.

Then-Commander of 3rd Division Support Command COL (NS) Tay (ninth from left) and his men at Exercise Wallaby in 2007.

Today, the 49-year-old manages 18 departments and has close to 1,000 staff under him. Operations ranging from the concierge and public relations to facilities maintenance and supply chain management all fall under him.

As the environment was entirely new to him, COL (NS) Tay took it upon himself to get to know his staff, understand the operating model of the hospital and learn medical terms.

With a hearty laugh, he said: "During my military days, when people asked me how my staff were doing, I always told them, 'I have no staff; I only have friends.' So far, this approach has worked really well for me."

There is always a better way

In his 3.5 years at the hospital, COL (NS) Tay brought about many changes, including getting an IT dashboard to provide real-time updates on the availability of beds. This shaved off hours and helped the hospital staff to get things done more efficiently.

The former Commander Army Logistics Training Institute explained that getting information on the availability of beds and the number of patients being discharged for the day was a laborious manual process. Using ideas learnt from his past SAF projects, he got his staff to use off-the-shelf software to pull information from the systems of various departments, process the data and beam it out as a dashboard. The best part? It refreshes every three minutes.

"It gives real-time information and allows management on the ground to make quick decisions in terms of resource allocation. It's more efficient."

The discharge lounge, one of his proudest initiatives, boasts a comfortable environment for patients.

Comfort zone

Perhaps his proudest achievement to date is the introduction of the discharge lounge. With a place for patients to rest while waiting for their caregivers to pick them up, the hospital's beds could now be freed up more quickly.

This idea may not be new, but few hospitals have found success with it. After some research, COL (NS) Tay realised that the lounge should be a place where people want to go to. So he located it at the ground level, opposite the pharmacy where patients can collect their medicine. There is also a Starbucks and a 7-11 nearby.

Beaming like a proud father, he said: "These patients are about to be discharged and they should be well enough to walk around, so we built the lounge at a place where we think patients would want to go. That was the key to its success."

Heartstring-tugging moments

COL (NS) Tay's eyes welled up when he spoke about a patient who was nearing the end of her life and had wanted to witness her daughter's wedding.

Wiping away tears with his handkerchief, he said: "My staff and nurses prepared the discharge lounge and got the patient to witness her daughter's ROM (registration of marriage) there. That really touched me. Within a week, she passed on."

The jovial man also enjoys visiting wards and chatting with patients. "Most of them (are old and) speak dialects; not many nurses can speak them. So I talk to the ah-mas and ah-gongs, make them smile a bit and help to do some simple translation."

It was also during these visits that he noticed patients staring at the ceiling and being abandoned in the hospital. He then started another working group to look into improving the care for these long-stayers.

To the hospital, with love

Engaging people is a skill that COL (NS) Tay picked up during his 27 years in the SAF. Through leadership courses and training programmes, he gained a better understanding of human interactions and learnt to engage people from all walks of life.

Although he misses his days in the military, he feels he has much more to contribute in the hospital.

"It's very satisfying when you see your initiatives being realised on the ground, or when you help the staff and patients and they appreciate you," said COL (NS) Tay.

"There are still a lot of things that I want to do for the hospital. So as long as the hospital thinks that I can help, I will stay."