COVER STORYConnect with us on ehealthmagazine @ehealthonline eHEALTH Magazine JULY 2019 9
T
he Indian healthcare
industry is evolving in an
unprecedented manner with
digital technologies, innovative
solutions playing a pivotal role
to foster healthcare delivery
system, providing an enhanced
healthcare experience to people
at large. Smart technologies like
artificial intelligence (AI)-based
solutions, cloud computing services,
connected medical devices, and
telemedicine are not only redefining
the whole gamut of patient care
but also contributing to bridge the
multitudes of infrastructural gaps in
healthcare.
“There has been a change in
patients’ demands and expectations
in the last 20 years. Healthcare
providers face a tremendous
pressure to manage cost and
patients’ expectation,” says Dr
Mahendra Kumar, Medical
Director, Sagar Hospital.
In the wake of rising cases of
non-communicable diseases due to
number of reasons, providers are
expected to deliver quick and better
care in cheapest possible manner,
and that gives birth of smart
hospitals.
Those hospitals which
synchronises all available
machinery of delivery of care
including technologies, clinical
workflows, and operational issues to
provide best healthcare experienceto patients, fall into category of
smart hospitals.
According to Nandkishore
Dhomne, VP-IT & CIO, Manipal
Hospitals, “Smart hospital is
huge investment in terms of
money and efforts, and timelines.
Smart hospital is culmination of
fantastic building, best technology,
efficient doctors and nurses. In
addition, processes have to be
simple, turnaround time should be
minimal, and information has to be
available at the point of care.”SMART HOSPITALS SHOULD
BE SMART ON EVERY FRONT
PERTAINING TO PATIENT CARE
The critical component for smart
hospitals revolves around the
ability to provide a valuable service
of insight, which was simply not
possible or available earlier. This is
what makes a hospital a step further
from being just digital to becoming
smart in true sense.
Simply digitising, or making
the hospital paperless (although a
great achievement) is not sufficient.
From exploratory implementations
to an intermediate stage, to finally
becoming smart where hospitals
have complete alignment of clinical
processes and management systems,
are hallmarks of the smart hospitals.
Raj SheKheR j, CEO, Bloom
Hospitals, says, “The concept of
smart hospital is based on faster,cheaper, and better delivery of
services. Just having processes
and skilled staff won’t help. A
holistic approach to healthcare i.e
architecture of the hospital, flow of
patients, processes, and cleanliness,
is the need of the hour.”
There are three areas that
any smart hospital addresses –
operations, clinical tasks and patient
centricity. Operational efficiency
can be achieved by employing
building automation systems and
smart asset maintenance and
management solutions, along
with improving internal logistics
of mobile assets, pharmaceutical,
medical device, supplies and
consumables inventory as well
as control over people flow
(staff, patients and visitors).
Clinical excellence encompasses
improving patient outcomes by
ensuring patient engagement and
monitoring.
“The concept of these hospitals
starts right from building. Facilities
are the first component of these
hospitals followed by processes,
clinical, nursing part and overall
patient engagement,” Dhomne
further adds.SMART HOSPITALS CONCEPT IS
NOT LIMITED TO DIGITALISATION
ONLY
Changing healthcare trends coupled
with huge demands of quality and
affordable healthcare from people
of all strata of society unleash a
barrage of conflicting challenges
at hospitals. They need to optimise
and automate processes as per the
patients’ requirements, maintaining
a decent revenue margin.
A digitally organised hospital
integrates various departments,
services, and clinical to do away
the manual work. The objective is
to improve patient care through
digital processes and new
technologies through various
communication platforms, a cross-