Let us be honest, no one really likes to go to a hospital or a clinic, but we all must at some point. So why not embed technology into the design of care facilities? Smart patient rooms that now have highly interactive 75” TVs with multi-purpose cameras to assist in virtual care and even Face-timing are becoming the norm. The goal is to make the visit as comfortable as possible, and most importantly, engage the care team in real time. Through advanced clinical communications and collaborations, team members can always stay in touch with the patient and their colleagues. This helps drive efficiencies, quality, and safety. Leveraging the continuous evolvement of the EMR with embedded AI helps the care team provide predictive analytics to streamline care, allowing fast and accurate diagnosis.
The built environment is now playing a vital role. Not just from a facility operations perspective, but maintaining lighting, temperature controls, security, and oh yes, patient room controls from “Alexa, lower the shades”, to “play music,” or “turn off the lights.” But this unique experience will not happen unless technology, in its broad form, is part of the design and budgeting process from day one. It is critical to have a multi-disciplinary technology planning team that consists of the design team, IT, end users, and anyone that leverages technology. This team and the vision must align with the overall design and the experience that healthcare facilities want. Without a true healthcare vision that leverages technology to drive the experience, the future will not become a reality.
