Smart hospitals leverage technology and data to provide outstanding care, a differentiated patient and staff experience and operational efficiency.
In a Becker's Hospital Review webinar sponsored by Cox Prosight, Jaiganesh Balasubramanian, director of product management for Cox Prosight, and Jenna Zayatz, director of volunteer services and programs at Phoenix Children's Hospital, discussed how digital front door solutions can address today's most pressing healthcare patient, staff and operational challenges.
Four key takeaways were:
- Hospitals face significant challenges when it comes to staff safety, operational efficiency and patient experience. According to Mr. Balasubramanian, 75 percent of workplace assaults occur annually in healthcare settings, hospitals over-order by 25 percent and under-utilize clinical equipment by 42 percent and missed appointments cost health systems $150 billion per year. In addition, hospitals lose $2.2 million each year due to poor patient workflows, 30 percent of first-time visitors get confused or lost and 75 percent of patients want better and easier access to the EHR system.
- Cox Prosight streamlines the patient experience before, during and after a patient's appointment. By utilizing sensors and gateways, Cox Prosight delivers location information and data to a mobile device, streamlining the entire patient journey.
- Before the visit. "Full integration with medical records mean that hospitals can deliver important information and tools directly to the patient," Mr. Balasubramanian explained. Not only can patients schedule and modify appointments, but they can access previous lab results and prescription information as well as complete pre-visit forms and adjust billing.
- During the visit. On the day of the appointment, patients can receive navigation help from home to the correct parking lot and then to the exact location of their appointment. Upon arrival, patients are checked in and staff is notified to reduce wait times. Patients can share their location with family members so that guests can easily find one another.
- After the visit. The navigation tool helps direct patients back to their vehicle. Hospitals can then solicit feedback, publish test results and initiate telehealth follow-up visits, elevating the entire post-appointment experience.
- Phoenix Children's Hospital solves specific wayfinding problems related to parking challenges. "We have a very large campus, so navigating our facility can be extremely difficult," Ms. Zayatz said. "We looked for a solution after hearing that our patients wanted a wayfinding solution that was more sophisticated than our paper maps drawn with a Sharpie marker. We knew we couldn't just map our buildings; we had to get families to the correct parking garage because that's where the frustration starts." Although Phoenix Children's will explore other features of the solution, the organization appreciated that it was fully configurable and flexible to address its most pressing problem first.
- Cox Prosight expands beyond wayfinding solutions to address other staff and operational challenges as well. "Our extensible and secure platform puts an amazing amount of crucial operational data at the hospital staff's fingertips," Balasubramanian said. "It gives staff the capability to track and monitor assets, automate temperature monitoring, improve hand hygiene compliance and even improve workflows, ultimately making hospitals more efficient."
With the many operational challenges that hospitals face, and the need to deliver improved patient experiences, an effective digital front door can improve the visitor experience, improve patient engagement, increase staff efficiency — and ultimately improve the bottom line.
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