The Smart(er) Patient Room of the Future has been discussed for more than a decade now, but we’ve really not made all that much progress as an industry in moving toward this vision. What’s holding us back? How will we get there?

The reality is that advancements toward a true patient “Smart Room of the Future” has to be accomplished very economically. You would be hard pressed to find many hospitals throwing a million dollars a bed into Smart Room initiatives these days. In fact, some hospitals aren’t even equipped with up-to-date nurse call or nurse communication systems, let alone the backbone needed for the visionary Smart Room. How do you implement technology in the real world? That is the critical question.

Starting the Journey

The Smart Room may still be out of reach for the majority of providers, but a smarter room is a great place to start the journey.

The promise of medical devices communicating seamlessly with a patient’s EMR and other systems in a Smart Patient Room would vastly improve the patient experience and the quality of care. When we think of current hospital room technology, we think of many different systems and devices that all produce data. But, what good are data points that are disconnected from one another? The term “interoperability” can get lost in the hum of tech buzzwords around us. But as we think about the future of data-driven patient care, we see that “interoperability” is much more than tech talk. It is a mandatory component of the patient room of the future. Our devices must talk to one another and communicate important information to our nursing staff in an intelligent, actionable way. Somehow, someway we need to arrive at a set of interoperability standards that are defined and acknowledged. New technologies that aim to advance providers toward smarter patient care have to accommodate legacy technologies that exist. They must be flexible.

We know that interoperable systems assure better communication and team coordination, but even more importantly, those systems also deliver an increased ability to leverage data. Capitalizing on the promise of big data might be considered “job number one” for hospitals. Real-time access to data that helps us diagnose issues and tell stories that improve processes and move people to action are fundamental for smarter care.

One Smarter System

As one example of a smarter system, some nurse call platforms will tell hospitals more than just what room requires attention. This can provide you with intelligent, actionable data.

For instance, even the simple knowledge that a call is for pain or a toilet request versus a blanket or ice would help direct the right personnel to the situation.

When we look to the Smart Room of the future and to the future of nurse call, we see a tool that integrates with other hospital systems and gives you the opportunity to make data-driven decisions that improve patient care. We see a nurse call with the advanced capabilities to help clinical staff respond to patient needs in a timelier manner while streamlining their workflow. In short, we see Amplion’s Care Assurance and Care Insight platforms. A nurse call system and a powerful data analytics platform that combines all of these tools to make your hospital one step closer to the Smart(er) Room of the future.

Interested in learning more about how data can make a hospital room smarter? Click here to download a quick reference guide.

To learn how Amplion can help and to schedule a demo, contact us by clicking here.