Digitalisation in the hospital

Summary

Summary

⁷Just Ebbesen, CEO of Kalnes Hospital, says: „Our hospital is leading the way in service-oriented innovation“, i.e. simplification, availability of information, a work process that gets closer and closer to the patient, the use of off-the-shelf technologies and the use of mobile staff. There is no better way to describe Lightweight ICT’s approach to real-time interactive process optimisation with high ROI.

Introduction

In an age of care worker shortages, inclusion and failure to ensure care for all, digitalisation can provide real work relief for professionals, revenue optimisation for directors and improved healthcare for patients. ⁸ But many in the health sector lack the investment resources. A solution is needed that delivers effective benefits for patients, staff and the treasury.

The so-called ¹interactive, interdisciplinary care management in real time has just this claim: lower costs, with simultaneous quality improvement and increase in patient time in real time, taking into account human rights and detached from management in silos. It does not completely contradict the philosophy of the Lean Healthcare Management approach, but goes far beyond it. It takes into account the principle ³„every second can be vital“ and is based on the mindset that effective optimisation can only succeed if the IT tools used are an effective facilitator and aid, and the information is provided as automatically as possible and in real time, appropriate to the addressee. On the basis of the information at the „right time in the right place in the right form“, the user can make the right decision. We can see the consequences of this practice in the most modern hospitals in Europe, which are located in Scandinavia: Savings of 44 min patient time per care per shift in emergency, 250K euros through the use of queue management and many more.

Digitalisation in hospitals

Before this new type of process optimisation by means of IoT is examined in more detail, the term digitisation must be clarified in this context.

Digitisation here means the interplay of a sustainable, innovative and affordable infrastructure with automated information flows and communication channels adapted to the processes, which are made usable for the users by means of lightweight ICT and which communicate via this with the heavy ICT (cash register systems, HIS, etc.). It is not limited to the hospital itself, but can also act interdisciplinary externally via this. Digitisation is understood here not only as the use of IT and technology, but also their best possible use.

The pillars of interactive processes

¹ This new way of optimising processes by means of lightweight ICT and the associated communication and information geared to the addressees is based on three pillars:

• Infrastructure
• Data quality
• Interactive and interdisciplinary process design and
• the selection of suitable tools

Infrastructure

⁴ Information infrastructure is understood as „a common, open (and unlimited), heterogeneous and evolving socio-technical installed base consisting of a set of IT capabilities and their users, such as operations and design“. Consequently, digitalisation can only be efficient if you build it on a solid foundation. A simple rule says: the earlier you introduce digitalisation into the planning of building projects, the higher the savings potential.

Universal cabling is replaced by universal WiFi.

This must then also meet the new requirements.
Wherever we replace cables with air, we must ensure the following points:

• Compliance with the global standard (e.g. 2.4 GhZ , max. 100 milliwatts)
• WiFi with guarantee for telephony, data and tracking
• No-sim card telephony for mobile devices
• Bring your own device philosophy
• RFID via ultrasound and Bluetooth instead of old RFID antennas or pure WiFi

Among other things, 40,000 CHF could be saved in 5 years through No Sim card telephony alone, the use of the smartphone as a working tool: pager, wayfinding and emergency alarm measuring devices, etc. Likewise, compared to conventional installations, more than a third of the costs (without discounts, local installation, no cloud IT).

Lightweight ICT and Heavy ICT

It is also no longer necessary to install a single platform for each organisation. Municipalities and countries or larger groups can also use these lightweight process tools to manage their entire clinics, homes and social wards in one data centre. The technical scalability and the prerequisites for data protection in this sensitive environment are in place. In Scandinavia, entire regions are already managed centrally.

Why did Ahus or Kalnes Hospital, for example, take this step?

⁵Heavy ICT (i.e. HIS, cash register systems, accounting, etc.) solutions are linked to the IT infrastructure (server, cloud, IT governance, etc.) as well as to the specialised knowledge of the IT units and developers. Only through these can continuity be guaranteed, especially in terms of security and reliability. In addition, these solutions interact with the business logic and data access layers. Lightweight ICT (platforms with widgets, apps, etc.), on the other hand, is a non-invasive solution whose interaction takes place at the presentation level.

Consequently, it can be understood as a complement to the well-known heavy ICT, because it supports the „simple, immediate needs of the user during the work process“ on the basis of less expensive technology.

⁶We see the advantages of such platforms in ecosystems from Google, Apple and Amazon, among others. The platform itself is stable, while the apps and widgets on the smartphones, tablets, whiteboards, etc. vary. This modular design enables flexible action in process design despite standardised software and hardware.