Smart Hospitals: The Future of Care Delivery
Across the world,
populations are growing older and their health requirements are becoming more
diverse. Along the same lines, technological advancements are evolving the
healthcare system. In this article, Truecode market researchers navigate how
hospitals and healthcare facilities are innovating their services in this
coming decade and what is in store for both patients and professionals.
Technological advancements, digitization and automation has impacted industries in the most profound ways.
Healthcare is no exception. Providing patients with experiences of artificial
intelligence, robotics, precision medicine, genomics and telemedicine are
paving the way for healthcare systems. Incorporating these technologies are of
immediate requirement of both short-term goals like cost control and efficiency optimization as well as long term goals like greater precision. Fewer errors
and better outcomes. This constitutes to the supply side of healthcare systems.
When looking at the demand aspect, consumers have now elevated their
requirements and want healthcare services to be accessible with greater
efficiency, convenience, comfortability and near normal setting. As a result,
the whole field of healthcare is evolving. Under this situation, traditional
centres of healthcare like hospitals are made to redefine themselves.
According to Truecode, as
cities are adapting and changing into catering smart features, they have also
included future ready features such as Smart Hospitals. These new hospitals include
features of advanced technologies into their designs and try to improve
consumer experience, as well as its outcomes and costs. The technologies used
not only improves care delivery within the smart hospital but also connects it
to a wider healthcare delivery ecosystem. Smart hospitals are not only built in
futuristic cities and metropolitans, they are also incorporated in less
advanced cities and hence surpasses the general rate of infrastructure
prevalent in them.
There has been an increasing
need for smart hospitals both from the supply and demand aspects. Market
research shows that there is an evident shift from disease treatment to health
management in consumers. The change to a better lifestyle that incorporates the
importance of wellness and maintenance deems to be the driving force. The change is being driven
both by patients, who want longer, healthier lives, and by payers, which are
facing budgetary pressures (and, in some cases, financial losses). For instance,
the Singapore government has established an organization called the Health
Promotion Board that encourages residents to adopt healthy living habits
through dissemination of evidence-based information and disease prevention
programs at homes, workplaces, and schools. All residents in Singapore are
urged to pay attention to their diet, exercise regularly, and undergo
preventive screening, all of which helps reduce the likelihood of disease
development (or progression) and need for hospital care.
Another aspect is the
rising need for clinical outcomes and the need for better quality in procedures
and services. This may be due to the shocking aspect that there is a certain
probability for diagnostic errors and treatment errors. The World Health
Organization estimates that even in developed countries, seven out of every 100
hospitalized patients progress a healthcare-related infection each year. This data
makes it clear that the concept of hospitals as the foremost site of care
delivery needs fundamental transformation to improve the quality of care. AI,
robotics, and other new technologies can convalesce treatment precision and
vividly decrease the probability of error.
Another possibility is that
across the world patients are becoming more aware, informed and empowered to
make wellness and healthcare choices. Countries that enjoy rising education and
literacy are leading to the change, and the factor of internet access, growing
use of digital devices have altered the information available to the patients. As
a result, many providers see prospects to become more patient-centric. Instead
of inactively receiving treatment, patients now often ask for more information
and expect to be involved when treatment choices are made. Often, decisions
about hospitalization are made jointly by the patient and provider. Patients
can make clear whether they want, and can afford, to be hospitalized, and
whether they would prefer to pursue alternative treatments. New technologies
that make possible online consultations, multidisciplinary team support, and
other new models of care delivery are helping hospitals become more
patient-centric.
This brings us to a
conclusion that smart hospitals will look very different from the traditional
hospitals of the past and present. In a more futuristic realm, smart hospitals
will be able to provide digitally enabled staff that will deliver better
outcomes and a more integrated patient experience, and continuing to innovate
in care delivery.
