Healthcare: How we take Indonesian hospitals to the next level

Good and affordable healthcare is in short supply in the Indonesian province of West Java. We have partnered with the new Jakarta Heart Center (JHC) to make the hospital a model for both patients and staff. 

Challenges in West Java 

Although Indonesia meets World Health Organization (WHO) standards in terms of the number of hospital beds nationwide, for anyone living outside the capital, Jakarta, good healthcare can be hard to find. This is true even in the province of West Java, home to 50 million people. New hospitals are not being built fast enough to match population growth. Shortages of staff, equipment and maintenance hinder existing clinics. Cardiovascular disease kills 650,000 Indonesians each year, yet many people in West Java live in scattered villages that lack good access to medical facilities. 

A new hospital for the region

A huge challenge in this region is therefore to bring quality healthcare that is also affordable to millions of people in need. There are plans to build multiple new smart hospitals, of which the first is the Jakarta Heart Center. The JHC opened in January 2023 and is a mid-sized hospital with 75 beds and a staff of 162. Best known for its cardiology department, which has three highly regarded specialists, the JHC also serves many other branches of medicine including general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, dentistry, and clinical nutrition. As well as serving the population of Tasikmalaya it is a support hub for small rural hospitals in neighboring districts.  

Connecting people through technology  

As healthcare demands continue to grow, often outstripping the available resources, clinicians need to do more with less. Today’s hospitals benefit from intelligent connections linking real-time technologies that help them operate responsively, flexibly, reliably and economically, while reducing energy use.  

That’s true of any large modern building, of course – but in the case of a hospital, the right systems can truly mean the difference between life and death. By using technology appropriately, smart hospitals can paradoxically become more human-centered for both patients and staff. 

Therefore, our solutions are improving operations and patient outcomes at the JHC. We have provided a complete package to enable a smart hospital. This results in the systems being future ready for upgrades needed to support a fully smart hospital.

Starting with the basics  

“The built environment generates more than 40% of annual global CO2 emissions,” said Edward Nainggolan, Regional Manager Building Products ASEAN at Siemens Infrastructure . “So, a key requirement was a smart building in which the operators and managers could properly monitor and control their heating and cooling, including energy consumption.” 

Integration and interoperability of fire protection, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), lighting, and access control in one Building Management System (BMS) are also essential for a building to be considered smart. 

 “Tackling these areas pays off in terms of efficiency, but being able to control lighting, room temperature and humidity is also crucial for patients’ recovery and to stop the spread of disease,” Nainggolan points out.  

As we integrated our technological solutions into the hospital’s infrastructure, JHC has evolved into an intelligent, secure, and interconnected healthcare hub, uniquely designed to meet the diverse needs of its patients.  

Full control where it counts  

In more detail, our integrated building management system allows the hospital to monitor and control building-related parameters including energy consumption, lighting, and fire protection. Automation systems effectively manage more than 2,000 data points for the many HVAC devices. As a result, the JHC expects energy cost savings of around 12%.  

Our advanced security cameras and our vigilant physical security monitoring system ensure access control for both staff and patients. Access control, intrusion detection, and video surveillance are integrated into a single system that ensures comprehensive and reliable security.  

With huge stocks of electrical equipment and flammable materials alongside bedridden patients, a hospital is surely the very worst place for a fire to break out. At the JHC, our fire protection system ensures the most reliable detection with more than 250 optical, smoke, and heat detectors. Natural extinguishing agents are in place to put out fires quickly, cleanly, and with minimum environmental impact. Additionally, our alarm and evacuation solution incorporating voice alarms and notifications aids rapid, secure, and orderly evacuations.  

A smart future for hospital buildings  

Continuing globalization, #digitalization, and especially climate change make it increasingly urgent for organizations to boost energy efficiency and cut CO2 emissions. Hospitals, especially, are traditionally huge consumers of energy. With the right technology in place, healthcare operators can shrink their energy use through better monitoring and control of HVAC and lighting, while smart fire protection and access control increase safety for both patients and staff. Together, that means better healthcare in a more sustainable world. 

This article was first published by Edward Parlindungan Nainggolan, Regional Manager at Siemens Building Products Indonesia, on Siemens Blogs as Healthcare: How we take Indonesian hospitals to the next level

Copyright by Siemens AG