Samutprakarn Hospital is serving as a showcase for a state hospital by using innovative technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to solve problems like overcrowding and to reduce patients' waiting times.
The hospital has also redesigned its workflow to improve its services, it said.
Director Ruethai Wanthanawinit said the hospital started shaking up its strategy two years ago and has been "trimming the fat" by reducing the number of unnecessary steps in various work processes.
"Under the lean concept, we put patients at the heart of our work and select the appropriate technology to serve them better."
One of innovations is the use of AI chatbot software to help classify patients according to groups of illnesses.
Chatbots can talk and ask patients about their symptoms and treatment history to speed up referrals and curb waiting times, Ms Ruethai said.
Previously, outpatients were required to go through 11 steps from an initial screening to meeting doctors and paying for their medical bills.
The number has since been reduced to five or six steps, with the goal of further scaling it back to three by 2021, when patients should have to wait a maximum of 24 minutes, she added.
Samutprakarn Hospital is also reducing overcrowding by increasing the treatment capabilities of so-called tambon health promotion hospitals.
In doing so, it has used "telemedicine", or remote diagnosis and treatment by means of telecommunications technology.
Doctors can use this method to advise patients at smaller hospitals so they don't have to travel far from their homes, officials said.
"Samutprakarn will be transformed into a smart hospital and others must follow suit," said Sopon Mekthon, an adviser to the Public Health Ministry.
