Hospital structure is undergoing radical changes, forced by contemporary market trends, new demands from different stakeholders and a common interest in innovation. Health care expenditure around the globe continues to rise at unsustainable levels. In this context efficiency and optimization become the keywords of the process aimed at lowering costs and increasing the quality of care services. Efficiency and optimization leads to innovation, and innovation in the contemporary age leads to the power of information and communication technology (ICT). This paper discusses how ICT became the new shaping tool for hospital environments and highlights one of the best examples of its implementation. Conclusions
The digitalization of the hospital is today a challenge that can be won with the power of ICT solutions.
These solutions trigger radical changes into to the old way of conceiving the hospital structure, and represent a means by which to renovate the way of designing and running healthcare facilities. However, there is no sure-fire recipe or guaranteed blueprint to reach the complete process of digitalization. The temptation to acquire successively more capable technologies and digital-aware machines risks creating islands of automation and further fragmentation of patient and clinical data. By viewing patient needs holistically, digitization becomes ameans to an end, and priorities become self-evident. A patient centric or “outside-in” approach to service planning, design and delivery is sure to achieve greater patient satisfaction, staff buy-in, and technology-enabled efficiency. The Jeroen Bosch Hospital’s experience represents a good example of this viewpoint. It provides a clear demonstration of the shaping power of ICT and of the way digitization is used to integrate services and information across traditionally separate hospital/allied care or public/private boundaries, so that patients experience end-to-end care that transcends departments, visits, episodes, and even life stages. The capabilities of tomorrow’s hospitals depend to a significant degree on what we invest today. Navigating these opportunities and challenges has never been more important. Considering the possibilities offered by ICT, these solutions represent a unique opportunity to re-shape the overall hospital structure and change the way the hospital together with care services are conceived. Source:
World Hospitals and Health Services, 2013 Vol. 49, nr. 3
The Official Journal of the International Hospital Federation (IHF)