Columbus-based OhioHealth has been experiencing promising early results from its 84 smart hospital rooms and plans to expand the technology to more facilities.
The 15-hospital system instituted the tech at its new $178 million OhioHealth Pickerington (Ohio) Methodist Hospital, which opened in December.
"Our experience has been very positive," OhioHealth Pickerington Methodist Chief Nursing Officer Duane Perry, BSN, RN, told Becker's. "What's nice about this technology and us implementing it is it doesn't just cover one thing. It's patient experience. It's a staff satisfier."
The technology exists in 72 med-surg rooms and 12 labor and delivery rooms at the hospital. The smart rooms cost $13,000 to $15,000 each. OhioHealth partners on the devices with smart room company eVideon and virtual care startup Caregility.
Here are eight technologies and capabilities offered by the smart hospital rooms:
1. Smart TVs and tablets. Patients can watch streaming services, video conference with family members, and access educational materials during their hospital stays.
2. Digital door signs. The signs light up with different colors to indicate patient status. Yellow, for instance, denotes a patient who is a fall risk.
3. Virtual nursing. "They're able to do care coordination," said Arika Thomas, BSN, RN, director of nursing for inpatient services at OhioHealth Pickerington Methodist Hospital. "They attend our multidisciplinary rounds, so they're an active, key partner in our discharge planning for the patient during the day. They're connecting with the nurses throughout the day. We have a tool within our electronic medical record that helps identify if a patient needs a higher level of care or assistance. The virtual nurse can review that, go over it with the nurse and help escalate that."
In the first six months of the care model, OhioHealth virtual nurses saved 650 hours for bedside hours, documented over 12,000 nurses' notes and conducted more than 6,000 video sessions with patients. The virtual nurses are employed by OhioHealth and work from home.
4. Virtual sitting. OhioHealth plans to implement 24/7 virtual sitting via the in-room cameras so virtual sitters can monitor fall-risk patients and zoom into the room to warn them if they're in danger of falling.
5. Digital staff introductions. OhioHealth employees wear radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags that trigger introductions with their name and info to pop up on the smart TV. Patients and family members can also track which staffers were in the rooms at which times.
6. Virtual neurology consults. OhioHealth is exploring the use of the cameras and virtual care technology to have neurologists perform exams and answer patient questions remotely.
7. Digital food orders. OhioHealth is building a capability for patients to be able to order meals and watch the delivery status on their screens.
8. Virtual translation services. Patients who don't speak English can access translators on the screens.
OhioHealth is considering the technology for future new builds and renovations. "Pickerington was scalable with it being a new hospital," Mr. Perry said. "We were able to get it implemented at a lower cost, but it allows us to test workflows, completely understand how to utilize it and how to optimize it, before we lateralize it. But it is our goal moving forward to put it in more care sites."