Blankets are intuitively doled out to those who may feel cold; wheelchairs are provided for those who appear to have trouble walking. And for those who seem lost or have difficulties finding their way around the premises, there is always someone on hand to provide clear directions, arrange transport services and even courier their medication and medical reports.

This describes not a five-star hotel concierge, but the service patients can expect at a home-grown medical centre situated at Royal Square in Novena. Among its patients are notable profiles that include CEOs, overseas ministers and even the wealthy from abroad - all of whom are impressed with Royal Healthcare and have entrusted their medical needs to its team of professionals.

Royal Healthcare began life as a family-run heart clinic in 2002. Today, it provides specialist healthcare, general medical services, day care surgery, aesthetic medical services and even runs a diagnostic imaging centre that has been operating with cutting-edge technology for the last 17 years.

In the midst of this, the team has also been working hard to optimise the patient journey. The result of this is its unique concept of "One Day, One Stop, One Centre".

Notes Ms Levinia Michael, centre manager: "Our facilities enable our medical professionals to provide scans or run procedures that can all be done within our centre on the same day. Thus, the need to wait and the need to travel are eliminated for the convenience of our patients."

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Even before their appointments, Royal Healthcare's patients receive gentle reminders of their scheduled session through e-mail, phone messages and calls.

On arrival, they will be assisted by a patient service officer who will facilitate the paperless registration process on a tablet. A photo of the patient will be taken and stored in its database for identification, but the patient service officers make it a point to know patients by face and name from that point onwards. This adds a personal touch to the service and helps patients feel more at ease, says Ms Levinia.

Each new patient has to complete a detailed health evaluation questionnaire, which spans 10 pages and differs for male and female patients. However, any tedium is dissipated as the patient service officer remains on hand to explain the set of questions, which could revolve around the patient's body systems, personal and family medical history, as well as medication, allergy and social histories.

Adds Ms Levinia: "The overview facilitates the doctor to recommend necessary medical imaging and diagnostic tests, which makes room for a precise diagnosis of the patient's health conditions, optimising the patient's healthcare outcomes at our centre."

Meanwhile, the patient service officer remains by the patient's side, attending to the patient throughout the pre-consultation blood pressure and Body Mass Index readings, during the consultation with a specialist, until the end of the patient's visit. All the while, the patient service officer also ensures that the patient's comforts are met by offering bottled water, hot or cold beverages and even food such as grilled cheese toast, roti prata with cheese and sausage from the centre's in-house pantry.

At the centre, procedures and tests available include a comprehensive eye check for all ages, adult and paediatric nasendoscopy (a test for head and neck cancers as well as larynx cancer that involves passing a flexible tube with an attached camera through your nose and into the upper part of the throat), biopsies and computerised tomography (CT) guided injections.

Its state-of-the-art Siemens Healthineers Asia Reference Centre, which opened its doors in October 2018, is fitted with advanced medical imaging devices that include a CT machine that can produce high-quality three-dimensional colour images and a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine that is more spacious and can reduce scan times by up to half. The centre also has the full range of other diagnostic equipment, which includes X-ray, mammogram, ultrasound, a bone mineral density machine and treadmill.

In its 20,000 sq ft facility, Royal Healthcare also has on site a Lasik suite, blood test lab, VIP waiting room and a day surgery centre that is equipped for procedures such as insertion of a cannula, port-a-cath and PICC line to deliver medication; as well as gastroscopy and colonoscopy, colposcopy, cystoscopy and sleep nasendoscopy.

Having these facilities in one place aids Royal Healthcare in delivering its promise of "One Day, One Stop, One Centre" to its patients.

The passion to go above and beyond

What completes the patient journey at Royal Healthcare is the service excellence mindset of its staff, who have the passion to go above and beyond for their patients.

Royal Healthcare's medical concierge team are committed to assisting patients with their insurance claim forms, and even paperwork such as applying for patients' entry visas or helping with the extension of the patients' family or caregiver's social visit pass in Singapore. For patients who fly in from abroad for treatment, Royal Healthcare also looks after their accommodation arrangements in Singapore, as well as flight bookings and even translation services for non-English speaking patients.

The dedicated team also makes house calls for vaccination or to draw blood for the elderly or those who have mobility challenges. On the rare occasion that procedures are not done in-house, the staff will also accompany the patients for their admission and discharge.

Patients also have round-the-clock access to support, as Royal Healthcare has a 24/7 hotline for emergency enquiries.

Adds Ms Levinia, "One of the patients under our care is visually impaired. We fetched him for scans and appointments at our centre, visited him weekly to deliver medication and other necessities, and called him daily to check on his well-being."

For her, these are but minor inconveniences, but they mean a lot to the patients.

"Just having the best doctors and equipment is not good enough. Patients want a holistic experience, so staff from every department play an important role in ensuring that our patients feel safe and comfortable with us," says Ms Levinia.

"It can be as simple as reassuring them that our premises are sanitised every other hour via a disinfection robot or providing a delicious breakfast of piping hot roti prata from our in-house pantry to those who have fasted a whole day for a medical procedure. At Royal Healthcare, our patients' well-being takes top priority and is the deciding factor in all our operating procedures."