Community Hospital of the Future (CHoF)
16 July 2026
CHoF is a national care redesign project that trials the role expansion of community hospitals, targeting suitable patients to receive care through earlier transfers from Acute Hospital to Community Hospital, direct community admissions, and community hospital-supported care beyond traditional bed-based models.
By right-siting suitable patients earlier, CHoF helps relieve Acute Hospital pressure by reducing Length of Stay (LOS), improving patient flow and strengthening Singapore’s post-acute care capacity.
MOHT works with MOH, public healthcare clusters and Community Hospital (CH) Providers to redesign policy, financing and service boundaries. MOHT drives programme coordination, cross-cluster alignment and evidence generation to support scalable, sustainable post-acute and step-down care models.
Aim Statement
To redefine the service boundaries of Community Hospitals (CHs) by jointly developing and scaling care models that reduce strain on Acute Hospitals (AHs), enable direct CH admissions from the community, and align with MOH’s thrusts in value-based care, capitation-readiness, and premise-neutral service delivery. This also addresses cluster-level challenges such as low AH-to-CH transfer rates and fragmented care transitions.
Why It Matters
Community Hospitals have the potential to relieve workload in Acute Hospitals. By right-siting patients earlier and integrating with national policies for value-based and capitation-ready delivery, CHoFstrengthens post-acute care capacity, improves patient flow, and supports system sustainability.
Summary
Population: Suitable patients who can be safely managed through CH-led care, including patients requiring post-acute care, direct CH admission, or care outside traditional bed-based models
Intervention:
i. Earlier AH–CH transfers,
ii. Direct admissions from the community (e.g. Community Care Team, Specialist Outpatient Clinics, Primary Care) to the CH,
iii. CH-supported community care
Comparator: Usual CH care
Outcomes: Shorter AH LOS, non-inferior safety/rehabilitation, improved throughput and better use of post-acute capacity
Key Results To Date
Utilisation: Reduced AH LOS and total LOS (AH+CH)
Safety: Non-inferior to national comparators
Functional: Maintained or improved recovery trajectories for key patient segments
System efficiency:
i. Increased throughput via sustained reduction in AH and CH LOS
ii. Effective right-siting via increased admissions from Community-to-CH
Enablers:
Care model redesign (via Consensus-Building Workshops across RHS-AH-CH landscape)
Segmentation (with clinician input)
Protocolised care (including proactive screening)
Awareness (including AH-CH collaborations for cross-institution coverage)
Manpower optimisation (e.g. top-of-license practice, trans-disciplinary service provision)
Partnerships (including volunteer-led initiatives for discharge readiness)
Operational improvements (e.g. fast-tracked admissions, bypassing AIC-IRMS reports)
Financing (e.g. premise-neutral subsidies)
Final Recommendations endorsed by MOH
Mainstreaming/scaling trialled initiatives for earlier AH-CH transfers
MOH to work with CHs to further assess the potential for POV for direct community to CH referral pathway