Jon Payne, manager at InterSystems, explores the concept of Hospital 4.0, and what the future of the hospital may look like.
Science fiction has long imagined what hospitals and healthcare might look like in the future. From robotic doctors and prosthetics to portable diagnostic scanners and regenerative nanobots, books, TV, and films have always provided us plenty of food for thought. But with the advent of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and the Internet of Things, some of these innovations are now coming far more sharply into focus.
So, what will the hospitals of tomorrow really look like? And how can the technology of today help us to create them?
Integrated systems are the backbone of Smart Hospitals
The concept of the Smart Hospital has been around for some time now and as other industries digitally transform, innovating extensively to benefit from the latest technology, healthcare in general – and hospitals in particular – have been turning their attention, not only to smart patient care, but to smart building technology too.
While we’ve already seen technology from robotics to automation being successfully adopted to support, or even replace, a wide variety of hospital processes and medical procedures, what we are now coming to realise is that if these digital technologies and systems can’t or don’t talk to each other, it creates siloed information and a disjointed service.
This works against the ultimate aim of a Smart Hospital – to improve medical outcomes, safety and the overall patient experience. That’s why systems integration and interoperability are foundational elements in healthcare’s digital transformation journey. It’s not simply a case of embracing new devices and software, and then training people to use them, but that these systems all work together to create a seamless healthcare service.
You can then create operational dashboards, for example, that show staff how the hospital is performing holistically. It’s exactly the kind of innovation that other industries are developing to improve decision-making and results – and something that goes right to the heart of smarter patient care.
Going beyond smart patient care
There are countless ways that integrated technology can positively impact hospital operations. With the understanding that delivering better patient care means using smart technology to improve overall comfort, sustainability, and efficiency for patients, visitors, and staff right across their facilities, forward-thinking hospitals are already pushing the boundaries of what the hospital of the future can look like.
An example of this approach in action is the Fiona Stanley Hospital in Australia, which has been described as one of the first Smart Hospitals in the Indian Ocean region. As well as using sophisticated digital devices and systems to deliver better patient care, it has also looked to implement smart building technology designed to improve the safety, security, and productivity of patients and staff – not to mention help the hospital to operate more sustainably by being more energy efficient.
Key to its success has been an integrated approach. Introducing a building management programme that provides users with insight and control of the various systems in use across its facilities, the hospital laid the foundations for a smarter future. From ICT to security to energy management, it was then able to provide connectivity between systems – reducing its operational costs while creating the best possible environment for the delivery of high-quality patient care.
Another healthcare facility looking to make its systems smarter is the Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, UK. The hospital first set out to rethink a specific process that was rife with inefficiency – making sure discharge medicines found their way to patients before they left the building. By using the barcodes printed on patient wristbands, the hospital has been working with technology providers on a system that simultaneously tracks the movements of the patients and the medicines – helping staff to operate more efficiently and deliver better patient care. It is now looking at other smart approaches it can take.
These real-world examples show how systems integration – using IoT, or RFID – are integral to the success of smart building technology, supporting everything from streamlining patient admissions and medicines tracking to managing food waste and reducing energy costs.
Overcoming interoperability challenges
However, despite hospitals often being seen as a single facility or campus of buildings, the best integration should ideally extend far beyond that to GPs and improve at-home devices used by patients, for example.
The problem is that most hospitals haven’t implemented the systems that centralise the data generated by these various devices and systems. This is understandable, as starting on that integration journey can be challenging. Many digital systems still operate on inadequate interoperability standards – a problem that the team at Derriford Hospital have had to overcome.
What’s more, many project stakeholders don’t fully understand how it all works or worry about what it means for patients. This is often a valid concern too, as patients need to be able to use these systems quickly and effectively, without specialist support.
The need for a Smart Hospital to incorporate both clinical data and building data – from architects, engineers, planners, and others – makes the move even more challenging. Many hospitals also face the prospect of trying to retrofit digital technology into ageing buildings and facilities, which is possible, but difficult to achieve in practice.
Regardless of the challenges, the fact remains that creating a Smart Hospital depends on the implementation and integration of digital systems, and this is infinitely achievable today using an interoperability platform. By putting one in place, hospitals can centrally connect, control, and gain insight from all the technology and systems in use across their facilities.
Smart Hospitals offer a whole host of opportunities to improve day-to-day operations and, with that, the patient experience. They are also seen as a long-term planning objective in the UK & Ireland. If we want to avoid the Smart Hospital remaining in the realm of science fiction, healthcare trusts must start to take advantage of the technology that already exists to lay the groundwork today.
