The industry’s challenges and priorities are driving healthcare systems to forge innovative solutions to manage the increasing expense and complex social burdens that ageing populations and increasing chronic disease rates bring. In both developed and emerging economies, the healthcare infrastructure is transforming to address the steady rise in both healthcare demand and costs. More efficient;y, digital hospitals are emerging as critical hubs to drive greater efficiency, improve quality of care and provide access for more people than ever before.

The potential of Digital Hospitals

Digital hospitals provide faster and safer throughput of patients, creating more capacity through process efficiencies, while sustaining  costs.

Patients

The following benefits to patients:

• An increase in patient safety through a reduction in medical and clinical adverse events
• Improved communications between the patient and the carer
• Reduction in length of stay due to improved operational efficiency
• Rapid intervention during critical periods of care facilitated by real time alerts and reminders
• Improved medications management
• Access to modern day electronic media and social information

Healthcare Professionals

The following benefits to healthcare professionals:

• A work environment attractive to care providers
• Reduction in transcription, legibility and omission errors
• Enhanced ability for clinicians to coordinate care because of simultaneous access to the electronic record
• Reduced time locating/collecting patient information
• Decreased number of avoidable clinical incidents
• Reduction in the number of unnecessary administrative tasks, meaning clinicians will have more time to communicate with patients about their care and needs

Application of Digital in Hospitals

In the United Arab Emirates, the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi is a favourite to be the first Middle Eastern Hospital to reach Stage 7. The 2.2-million-square-foot hospital, which was completed in May 2015, was designed from the ground up to be completely paperless, and builds electronic surgical and imaging technology, telemedicine and digital patient records into a single integrated system. Many of the technologies it employs – such as the use of unit-dose bar codes on medication and blood products – replicate those used on the Cleveland Clinic’s main campus in Ohio.

This technological integration mirrors the healthcare model that Cleveland and its Abu Dhabi subsidiary employ. Their doctors are paid a fixed salary and so have no financial incentive to provide unnecessary treatments, and teams are organised around body system or disease rather than job function. Hence medical, surgical and support staff work together and share information daily.

Digital technologies therefore offer the chance for individualised, tailored, accelerated and more effective strategy for businesses. If you want to know about the power of digital transformation, the Anglo African consulting team can help you,  do contact Jessen on 2331636 or via e-mail at  jessen.valaythen@infosystems.mu