HOSPITAL PLANNING & EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

HOSPITAL PLANNING & EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

Emerging technologies dramatically will change health care soon. They are providing improved patient outcomes and creating new health care delivery methods. New health care facility design requirements and adaptive technology-implementation strategies will be needed to stay in front of these changes.

1.      Hospitals will adopt more technology to have a connected infrastructure.

Patients are favoring the use of telemedicine and prefer virtual visits for their regular check-ups. To facilitate this, hospitals must have a more connected infrastructure.

Here are some of the technologies that hospitals can adopt to make their infrastructure more connected.

·        Hospitals use augmented reality (AR) to integrate images into the patient’s environment.

·        Virtual Reality (VR) is being used to simulate clinical situations in pain management, neurorehabilitation, etc.

·        Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used for predicting the outcome of clinical situations and helps in improving the quality of treatment.

·        Robotics has been used in surgery via telemedicine.

·        Wearables like Google glasses are used to monitor patient’s health parameters 24×7 remotely.

·        3D printing has enabled the easy fabrication of prostheses and implants.

Technology has enhanced the hospital infrastructure importance and enabled it to be more remotely connected with physicians and specialists by the above means.

2.      Hospital infrastructure will become decentralized.

With technology entering the field of healthcare, there is no longer a need for the patient to remain hospitalized for long periods. Non-invasive treatment procedures are now being done at outpatient clinics, reducing the inpatient stay at hospitals. This has spurred the growth of small health care units, ambulatory services, and emergency-care clinics. Hospital infrastructure has thus become more decentralized.

The vertical integration of big hospitals with small healthcare clinics by merger or acquisition has also lead to their diversification and decentralization. Hospitals have now started setting up a chain of their individual healthcare units in the hope of offering more specialized clinical care.

3.      Hospital infrastructure will look at alternative sources.

With energy costs hitting the roof and with eco-consciousness being the watch-word, Hospital infrastructure will look at alternative sources of energy and materials. Hospitals will look at renewable energy sources like solar, biogas, etc. Even recyclable items will be preferred for use in hospital raw materials. Hospital infrastructure planning will focus on green building to cut down on both their energy costs and footprint.

4.      Hospital infrastructure will switch to Cloud.

Healthcare is essentially a data-driven industry and the voluminous patient data becomes too much for hospitals to manage. Therefore, hospitals will tie-up with third-party vendors to store and manage patient or hospital data on the Cloud. Private Cloud vendors can meet the security and privacy standards demanded by the hospital. This will greatly reduce overheads and step up the productivity of the hospital.

5.      Hospitals will become wholly patient-centric.

In today’s competitive world, patient satisfaction has become the cutting edge for hospitals to succeed. Hospitals will focus on offering personalized care for patients while trying to adhere to hospital NABH standards. Hospitals will offer their own mobile apps to facilitate online scheduling and follow-up of appointments. Right from the home delivery of medicines to home doctor visits, the patient will be accorded the maximum personalized care by hospitals.

Hospital infrastructure planning must be revamped to incorporate recent trends in technology to ensure the sustenance and profitability of hospitals.

Dr Rahul S Kamble

MBBS, MD Microbiology

Diploma Infectious Diseases (UNSW, Australia)

Infection Control course (Harvard Medical School, USA)

International Clinical Tropical Medicine course

(CMC Vellore|Haukeland university|McGill university)

International Vaccinology course (CMC Vellore)

Six Sigma Black Belt (Govt of India certified)

Auditor: JCI|NABH|NABL|CSSD|RBNQA|Texila university

PGDBA|PGDHM|PGDCR|PGDMR|PGDOM|

PGDMLS|PGDIM|PGDHI|PGDBI|PGDHA|CCDHHO

Consultant Clinical Microbiologist & Infectious Diseases

Project Lead - Antimicrobial Stewardship