Powering the Smart Hospital of Tomorrow
When we think of the footprint of technology in our lives, it’s no wonder consumers gravitate toward technologies labeled “smart.” From our TVs to home air conditioning systems, we clamor for technologies that integrate seamlessly with our daily lives. The ones that can deliver on promises of making life easier and better are the ones that get our attention.
This return on investment with daily technologies is increasingly important in the healthcare landscape for providers and patients. For instance, imagine checking in from your mobile device or kiosk while in a hospital waiting room without signing in with pen and paper.
A significant number of hospitals have already begun the process of transitioning to a smart hospital designation, and this number is expected to increase exponentially in the coming years. The benefits provided through modernizing our healthcare facility infrastructure are too impactful to ignore.
The Opportunities in the Industry
Besides keeping up with new technologies, other factors motivate a hospital’s digital transformation. Current industry challenges make upgrading hospital infrastructure critical to staying competitive.
Staffing continues to be an area of concern, as shortages exacerbated by COVID persist seemingly unabated. According to a nursing workforce analysis by Health Affairs, from 2020-2021, the total number of RNs decreased by more than 100,000.
Certain technology is becoming increasingly important: technology that encourages current staff to remain on board by allowing for greater flexibility in work schedules and streamlining, or in some cases even eliminating, the mundane tasks involved with daily hospital operations. Lightening the load by automating or virtualizing certain aspects of healthcare enables valuable staff to focus their efforts where they are needed most and alleviate some of the pressures that lead to the dreaded burn-out.
Evolving care delivery models and the increasing popularity of value-based care—where outcomes are incentivized more than volume—are also challenging for hospitals to evolve. Systems that boost efficiency and accuracy in diagnosis and treatment while at the same time presenting the lowest possible cost to the patient are in high demand. This ongoing pivot from a traditional fee-for-service model to a more value-based one is gaining traction, and healthcare facilities that aren’t agile enough to transition may get left behind. Having reliable systems that can easily shoulder massive amounts of data is imperative.
This isn’t to say that patient outcomes are only just now drawing the attention of the hospital management industry. Providing the best possible care has always topped the list of any healthcare organization. The increased visibility and accompanying scrutiny of hospital treatment data haven’t raised any new concerns but underscored the importance of improving the community’s overall health. Technology that can better track and communicate this information while at the same time keeping it safe is not just a want-to-have, but a must-have.
Costs in every sphere of life have increased dramatically in the past several years, and healthcare administration is not immune from these rising costs. Patients, providers, and payers are more focused on the bottom line than ever. Cost-effective treatments like telemedicine and other methods of virtual care are increasingly appealing to all parties. Any approach that can increase positive outcomes while reducing cost is worth exploring, and advancing technology has proven instrumental in achieving this goal.
Key Technologies Transforming Smart Hospitals
Next, we’ll explore some technologies to leverage to address these opportunities and how Cox Business Healthcare IT Solutions can help.
Underpinning any modern approach to a hospital’s operations is connectivity. For all of the new, interconnected systems and devices to function correctly, you need a reliable network with quick and secure access that can be trusted to stay online during critical events. Emergencies are a part of normal operations for a hospital, and you need to know that the new technologies won’t fail you in your hour of need because the network is down. Whether you’re talking about broadband access to communicate with other providers and patients outside your facility or the WiFi network used to transmit data within your hospital, Cox Business has a dependable solution to keep everyone and everything online.
This network also needs to be secure and built to handle large-scale interconnectivity. The quality and volume of medical data generated by our advances in healthcare technology are increasing rapidly, and you need to know that this information is not only protected but transmittable. A Cox Private Network solution offers increased security for your patients’ protected health information, as well as the ability to create dedicated bandwidth for the areas of your hospital deemed most operationally critical or emergent.
Cloud computing is an important part of this network infrastructure. By employing the sizeable storage space and accessibility the cloud offers through the RapidScale solution, hospitals can rest assured that there’s plenty of room to capture all the important data they collect throughout the day. Using a powerful and secure cloud solution also means that priceless data is available to the staff that rely on it, and AI and MI learning require extensive data input for the best results.
Finally, a robust and dependable Real-Time Location Solution offers additional opportunities to improve the patient experience, monitor a hospital’s important (and expensive) resources, and streamline operational workflows. Cox Prosight RTLS offers features like wayfinding applications that help patients and visitors navigate the facility, integrated tags for tracking and monitoring mobile medical equipment as well as and easy-to-use systems for managing staff duress situations and hand hygiene compliance
Why Cox Business and Its Companies Are Ideal Partners
Cox Business and our expert partners and subsidiaries not only offer smart solutions to the many challenges modern hospitals face, but we also integrate seamlessly into a hospital’s evolving ecosystem. From the Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) approaches, where we can harness the power of linking individual devices to a powerful and reliable network, to the increased asset management provided by an advanced RTLS, Cox Business has a full stack answer to the questions posed by today’s market.
Not only can we help you address the pressing needs of the industry, but we can position you to be adaptable to what’s coming down the road. The Value-Based Care approach and demand for community health workers in a hospital setting are two recent trends that may require hospital administrators to adjust how they do business. Most estimates peg the market growth for smart hospitals at over 20% in the next several years. An agile technology infrastructure can help a healthcare organization tap into that market, making the coming transitions easier and more appealing.
