Oriental Melaka Straits Medical Centre wins Healthcare Asia Awards 2025 for positive audit results

The reports have shown a decreasing trend of patient falls, no missed or mixed-up samples, and no surgical site infections throughout 2024.

Oriental Melaka Straits Medical Centre (OMSMC) took home the win in the Patient Safety Initiative of the Year - Malaysia category during the coveted Healthcare Asia Awards 2025 for its OMSMC Patient Safety Initiative (OPSI) 2.0 that further implements audits to monitor compliance and effectiveness of its patient safety initiatives.

As part of this initiative, the hospital has also launched several projects, amongst which is the audit on the management and storage of sterilised items in sub-stores to ensure the integrity of items used for surgeries and procedures of patients. With this audit, the hospital is able to identify and rectify gaps in the maintenance of zero surgical site infection as a result.

Another project launched is its audit on the effectiveness of its fall prevention assessment and intervention strategies. The report has shown a decreasing trend for adult and paediatric inpatient falls. The patient fall rates were 0.56 and 0.68 falls per 1,000 patient days for adult and paediatric inpatients, respectively, meeting OMSMC’s target of less than 0.8 falls per 1,000 patient days. The hospital posits that whilst there is significant compliance observed, the compliance rate can be further enhanced to improve overall patient safety. It has considered the potential digitisation of fall assessment and intervention into real-time electronic patient records to sustain the project and improve compliance.

The third project is the implementation of an acknowledgement slip to ensure no samples are missed out when sent via the pneumatic tube system, which may impact patient diagnosis and delay treatment. The study has observed that OMSMC attained zero missed out and mixed up samples in Q4 2024 after the implementation of the project, with the usage of a pneumatic tube for sending samples having remained consistent.

Overall, the projects have been deemed successful due to positive results being recorded.

Healthcare Asia Awards honours exceptional hospitals across the region that have redefined the standards of excellence in the industry through their innovative solutions and substantial contributions to communities.

The Healthcare Asia Awards is presented by Healthcare Asia Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2026 awards programme and be acclaimed for your organisation's remarkable initiatives and contributions to the healthcare industry, please contact Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected].