{
  "id": 13572159,
  "title": "Malaysia has spent decades digitising public healthcare. Why are paper records still in use?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/10/malaysia-has-spent-decades-digitising-public-healthcare-why-are-paper",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-10-10T23:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Malay Mail",
    "slug": "malay-mail",
    "url": "https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2026/10/11/malaysia-has-spent-decades-digitising-public-healthcare-why-are-paper-records-still-in-use/236366"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Malaysia has invested decades in digitising public healthcare, but paper records continue to be used in certain instances. When a patient visits a hospital with electronic medical records, many traditional paperwork processes can now be completed digitally. However, many public hospitals in Malaysia have yet to fully transition to EMR. This can result in patients encountering paper-based processes, such as filling out appointment books, waiting for nurses to locate medical files, or making appointments through paper cards. For example, a patient named CK Tan had to wait two hours while a nurse searched for her medical file, and another patient, Medaline Chong, faced the possibility of undergoing unnecessary procedures because her medical report went missing. The issue is not limited to hospitals; even dental clinics still require patients to drop paper appointment cards into designated boxes. The Health Ministry's hospital information system, HIS@KKM, covers many aspects of healthcare, but different systems have been introduced at different times and are not all connected. As a result, some medical records and documents remain outside the digital system, requiring patients to rely on paper records. The Malaysian government is now investing an additional RM350 million for public healthcare digitalisation, bringing the total allocation to RM1 billion.",
  "summary": "KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 — For a patient visiting a hospital where electronic medical records are already in use, much...",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Malay Mail",
        "title": "Malaysia has spent decades digitising public healthcare. Why are paper records still in use?",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/10/malaysia-has-spent-decades-digitising-public-healthcare-why-are-paper-13574220",
        "published": "2026-10-10T23:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}