We’ve all heard of smartwatches, smartphones, and smart homes. More forward-thinking healthcare leaders are embracing the same concept as they look to transform their facilities into smart hospitals.
What is a smart hospital? McKinsey & Company explains that smart hospitals are those that “embed new technologies into their design and operations to improve the customer experience, as well as outcomes and costs.” While established hospitals may not have the opportunity to completely redesign their facilities around technological innovations, there are ways to incorporate the latest technology into existing workflows to achieve the same results.
Key features of smart hospitals
The application of intelligent technology in hospitals is nearly limitless. As technologies like generative AI, robotic process automation (RPA), and machine learning (ML) continue to advance, so do their healthcare applications. The following are just a few examples.
- Advanced diagnostics. One of the first applications of AI in healthcare has been diagnostic imaging. Today, AI is used to analyze images such as X-rays, ultrasounds, MRIs, and CT scans to identify issues that a technician may miss. By combining patient data from various sources, AI gives doctors a more holistic view of the patient’s health, helping them make a more accurate diagnosis faster, which can help inform more effective care plans and better decision-making.
- Telemedicine and remote patient monitoring. AI-powered wearable devices have revolutionized telemedicine and remote patient monitoring. Devices like blood glucose meters, blood pressure monitors, activity trackers, and fall detection monitors enable clinicians to remotely track patients and quickly intervene when issues are detected.
- Electronic health records (EHRs). AI-assisted dictation solutions can convert a clinician’s recorded after-visit summaries into digital format and then input those notes into the patient record. Another application that is growing in popularity is the virtual scribe. The American Medical Association describes these as “using the microphone on a secure smartphone, the ambient AI scribe transcribes—but doesn’t record—patient encounters and then uses machine learning and natural-language processing to summarize the conversation’s clinical content and produce a note documenting the visit.”
- Robotics and automation. From surgical assistants to physical rehabilitation, the use of innovative robotics and automation applications is expanding quickly. An article published by Case Western Reserve University explains that “Unlike humans, these tireless machines with steady ‘hands’ can execute precise movements beyond human range, providing prolonged patient support.”
- Staff duress solutions. Violence in healthcare settings is on the rise, and traditional panic buttons aren’t always within reach. Instead of having to search for the nearest panic button, wearable smart devices enable clinicians to alert security and first responders. These devices integrate with a hospital’s communication system while “forensic reporting features provide historical event insights, enabling hospitals to continuously improve their response strategies and comply with regulatory standards.”
- Nurse call systems. Leveraging AI, nurse call systems can prioritize responses based on a patient’s condition and medical history. They can also recognize patterns and alert nurses proactively with real-time data, enabling them to make faster, better-informed decisions.
- Real-time location services. New indoor location technology uses motion tracking and sensor-fusion algorithms to provide real-time insight into the location of people and materials. This enables organizations to localize people across multiple floors, allowing them to prioritize workload in real time to deploy the right person to the right place at the right time.
Challenges
One of the most significant barriers to implementing smart technology is the cost of upgrading or replacing existing systems. With sluggish margins and rising expenses, finding the capital to commit to such a large undertaking can be challenging. Industry experts suggest hospitals take a phased approach to make the process manageable.
Another challenge hospitals face is getting different solutions to talk to one another. For example, nurse call systems and staff duress solutions must integrate with a hospital’s safety management software to track incidents, response times, and other metrics that inform safety and quality reporting. Without this type of interoperability, hospitals are unlikely to realize a full return on their investment.
Just as crucial as having solutions that talk with each other is the need for real-time data that integrates seamlessly into existing workflows. This is the only way for hospital leadership to understand what is happening in their organization, which they need in order to identify breakdowns and make timely interventions.
Benefits of smart hospitals
The goal of smart hospitals is to “make extensive use of innovative technologies to improve care quality and patient experience while reducing costs.” At the heart of this effort is the need for real-time data, which fuels the technology and enables success.
Smart hospitals increase efficiencies and productivity, improve outcomes and the patient experience, and provide significant cost savings.
Success in action
Navenio worked in partnership with 2gether Support Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, to help realize their vision of helping their hospitals’ core services operate more efficiently long-term. Navenio’s Intelligent Workforce Solution (IWS) was engaged because of the transformational impact it can have on costs, improving the efficiency of Portering services and consequently improving patient outcomes. It was a privilege to work so closely with 2gether Support Solutions to implement Navenio’s indoor-location technology across Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Kent & Canterbury and William Harvey hospitals. In this document, we discover how Navenio’s technology has empowered their staff, benefitted patients, and positively impacted other hospital departments.
2gether Support Solutions inherited a legacy system for allocating tasks to Porters via a helpdesk and it was believed the system could be vastly improved. Navenio’s IWS Portering module, which allocates tasks based on ‘the right person, right time, right place’ using only a smartphone, was chosen to improve the efficiency of the Portering service, reduce helpdesk calls, and provide live ETAs for Porters to Nursing teams.
Every hospital is different. Navenio’s 3-stage implementation process ensured that we delivered a system that was right for each of their needs:
- Discovery – Information gathering from all relevant departments, understanding their needs, gathering feedback on current processes, and advising on some processes that could be optimised.
- Set Up & Test – Configuring Navenio with all hospital processes and operational parameters, sense checking against hospital policies and governance and going through structured User Acceptance Testing.
- Onboarding – Group training of all Navenio users, working around clinical pressures to minimise disruption, with on the ground support during go-live.
Post onboarding, Navenio worked with 2gether Support Solutions’ managers and Trust staff to ensure that they continued to get the most out of Navenio and its analytics.
With the implementation of Navenio, efficiencies have been realised within the first stage of implementation. As the Portering department has become more efficient, Ward staff who spent time carrying out Porter duties now have that time to care – up to c.200hrs per week. And using Navenio’s data and insights, other areas that require change have been highlighted. For example, blood samples collected by Porters were higher than usual; the reasons were identified and solutions introduced.
Thanks to Navenio’s successful implementation, the realisable benefits are now being considered for implementation with other service areas such as Rapid Response teams and Catering.
The results
Navenio has helped put the Portering service wholly back into the control of 2gether Support Solutions by empowering Trust staff when it comes to requesting a Portering task. Since implementation, efficiency has increased, and service delivery has improved:
- 18% More tasks are handled, despite reducing helpdesk calls
- 26% More tasks are completed
- 39% Faster assignment time of task
- 29% Faster response time
- 29% Of staff are walking less miles (per hour per resource)
- 10% Fewer tasks are cancelled
- Faster transit time – reduced by 5%
- 12% Improvement in task compliance
“We now have visibility of when Porters have accepted tasks, an estimate of when they will arrive and their progress, it has really improved the situation for staff and patients alike.”
— Ward Clerk
Connie Moser is a serial entrepreneur with several successful exits to her credit and more than 30 years of experience building healthcare information technology organizations. Connie is known industry wide as a true leader who relentlessly pursues growth through realized customer value, all while building loyal teams that routinely follow her to new opportunities.
Connie’s success is data-driven, accomplished through validated growth metrics gained via strategic acquisitions, effective sales bundles, and business process streamlining through automation. As the Chief Executive of Navenio, a UK based technology company focused on logistical intelligence in healthcare, she is validating her leadership skill with successful revenue transactions as she did as the CEO of Verge Health (now RLDatix) and building a strong presence in the US and global healthcare market. Team empowerment and mentoring younger employees has been a constant throughout her lengthy career and a source of deep satisfaction. Her mentorship extends to her work as a long-time board member of her alma mater Ripon College since 2013.
Outside of her professional life, Connie has also held a board position with the Competency and Credentialing Institute for non-profit organizations focused on nursing certification. She is a frequent speaker and industry expert often called upon to provide feedback by the venture and private equity community around new analytically enabled solutions and companies.
