By George Meglio / Special to Healthcare Facilities Today

Now more than ever, healthcare facilities and providers face increased pressure to balance cost management and revenue generation while also improving health outcomes and satisfaction rates of both patients and workers. As patients become more active in their healthcare decisions, healthcare facilities are tapping digital technologies to help their organizations overcome these challenges.

Hospitals and similar facilities are quickly learning that they can provide a more patient-centric experience – which leads to better health outcomes – by effectively combining digital tools with analysis, communication, and collaboration.

This article will look at several trends that show how technology can facilitate active participation from patients, reduce medical errors, and improve quality of service – all of which are aimed at achieving a higher quality of care in healthcare facilities.

Displays

One simple and ever-growing way patients become engaged in their own healthcare outcomes is through displays. By integrating display technology throughout facilities, healthcare providers can share various imaging, diagrams, and information to more easily explain conditions or procedures to patients and their support team. This type of collaboration, in turn, gives shared control to all parties involved in the decision-making process, and strengthens physician-patient relationships.

Interactive displays and tablets are also helpful tools to assist patients with viewing their medical records and test results, making appointments, and managing treatment schedules. Having access to this data empowers patients to update and ensure the accuracy of their medical records and experiences while also freeing up time for staff to serve additional patients. Additionally, displays can be programmed to provide content relevant to a patient’s specific procedure and recovery, which allows them to become further informed and involved in their treatment, leading to a more positive outcome.

Healthcare information systems

While it’s not necessarily a new practice, moving from paper-based patient records to Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) will continue to trend for some time. Moving EMRs to cloud environments offers several benefits, including the removal of inefficiencies and inaccuracies of paperwork transferred between medical facilities.

EMRs also provide seamless access to a patient’s complete medical history and up-to-the-minute status or test results, regardless of a patient’s whereabouts. Having the ability to view a patient’s complete medical history, a healthcare facility or provider can easily note other conditions or medications that should be considered when formulating a treatment strategy.

Wearable devices      

Most healthcare facilities are filled with technology and devices that never leave the same location. These room-bound devices typically require constant monitoring by healthcare providers, and often while patients are resting and recuperating.

The adoption of wearable devices such as biosensors can better facilitate data collection and analysis by transmitting it to devices carried by healthcare providers around an entire facility; information such as vital signs, skin conductance, blood pressure, electrocardiograms, and electroencephalography can be delivered in real-time to smartphones or tablets in the hands of facility personnel without disturbing patients.

Once again, this technology trend not only helps reduce user error, it also provides more opportunity for administrators to quickly strategize a best course of action for treatment and improve interaction with their patients. Furthermore, it speeds up care and decision-making processes by surfacing important data to whomever needs it wherever they are. 

Telehealth programs

It’s important for healthcare facilities and providers to alleviate as much stress from patients as possible, especially for those who are critically ill or require intensive treatments. Telehealth technologies play a significant part in improving patient experiences by easing hardships for those who must but often can’t travel long distances for treatments or therapy. Through teleheath programs, healthcare professionals can view and/or communicate with patients from homes or local medical facilities via text messaging, multimedia, and video conferencing.

 The use of these programs has also shown that, by allowing people with busy work and family schedules to easily communicate with their physicians with less interruption to their daily lives, overall patient and facility satisfaction rates improve.

Medical knowledge in general can also benefit by integrating telehealth programs. Specialists from anywhere in the world can share, discuss, and collaborate on the data and analysis of any medical condition. This knowledge-sharing often leads to medical breakthroughs, faster and more-accurate decision making and, ultimately, better patient outcomes.

While all these technology-based trends are working together to improve the experiences of patients and staff in healthcare facilities, it’s important to remember they are only tools used to improve and not replace individualized services. As with any technology, in any facility, people (and strong communication between them) are still required to manage the technology and to ensure that it’s serving its purpose to improve and streamline operations. With digital tools empowering the people involved, healthcare facilities have an immense opportunity to use “smart” technologies to engage patients on a deeper, personal level, open avenues of collaboration, and help patients and their families make more informed and confident decisions.

Furthermore, by enabling physicians and other healthcare professionals to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time doing what they do best – taking care of patients – healthcare facilities will see the benefit of improved patient health outcomes and satisfaction rates.

George Meglio, CTS, is the Director of Workplace Technology Solutions at dancker.