As the healthcare industry continues to evolve and shift toward a value-based reimbursement model, hospitals and healthcare organizations are seeking innovative ways to lower costs, provide higher-quality care and improve efficiency. That’s why hospital leadership is increasingly looking to technology as a means to streamline care and increase productivity.

Technology has historically been a source of frustration for healthcare providers—the lack of interoperability between different information technology systems and software applications can negatively affect staff performance and patient outcomes. Take, for example, the traditional nurse call system. The complicated system of electrical wiring is based on legacy technology from the 1970s. Though it meets the UL standards for nurse call, it has limited reporting capabilities and a simple dome light that only turns on and off, creating inefficiency and even “light fatigue.” Plus, adding functionality or other software requires costly and complicated integration with middleware.

Simply meeting UL standards is no longer sufficient for today’s rapidly changing healthcare industry. Hospitals need technologies with interoperable platforms that allow information and data to be shared in real-time, so that nurses can better manage workloads and hospital administrators can track care delivery floor-by-floor.

But here’s good news: A new set of technologies makes it easier for hospitals to take a more simplified approach and access, exchange and use data more effectively. Gartner calls this group of technologies the Real-Time Health System (RTHS). RTHS technologies break down the technological silos that prevent information from being shared across healthcare IT systems throughout the organization. RTHS technologies combine advancements in clinical communication and collaboration, interactive patient care, alarms and notifications and specialized products such as nurse call in order to reshape the healthcare industry.

However, before hospitals can chart their digital future with real-time technology, they must address fundamental data issues, notes one article in HITInfrastructure. “Healthcare organizations tend to buy master data management systems or data governance systems, then they’re left with how to piece all the systems together,” Gavin Robertson, senior vice president and CTO of WhamTech, told HITInfrastructure. “By having these separate systems, you introduce another layer of integration requirements and latency. You’re constantly copying data around to address some of the basic data management issues.” Integrated technologies, such as Amplion’s Care Assurance platform, can help address this problem by fusing key features of nurse call and alarm management systems with mobile device support and messaging and reporting capabilities.

Amplion Care Assurance combines the best features of the RTHS to take patient care to the next level. Our next-generation nurse call technology far exceeds UL standards and highlights advanced reporting capabilities. Unlike traditional nurse call systems that require middleware for added functionality, Amplion’s nurse call is delivered on a configurable, customizable platform that allows for easy upgrades to our advanced messaging/reminder suite and alarm management support.

If you want to learn ideas on how to chart your digital future, click here to contact one of our technical specialists for more information on RTHS technologies.