A definition of the term “smart hospitals” may thus be: “A smart hospital is a hospital that relies on optimised and automated processes built on an ICT environment of interconnected assets, particularly based on Internet of things (IoT), to improve existing patient care procedures and introduce new capabilities”.

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Understanding Smart Hospitals
By.Dr.Mahboob ali khan Phd
Here’s what executives need to know now about embarking on the
journey by implementing applications to build a smart network of
solutions. A definition of the term “smart hospitals” may thus be: “A smart
hospital is a hospital that relies on optimised and automated processes built on
an ICT environment of interconnected assets, particularly based on Internet of
things (IoT), to improve existing patient care procedures and introduce new
capabilities”.
Hospitals globally are under tremendous pressure today and are facing
factors such as reimbursement and cost pressures, while serving an
increasingly aging population suffering from chronic diseases.
Hospitals are seeking ways to improve their productivity and
efficiency, in order to reduce operational costs and therefore, improve
margins. While hospitals are busy doing this, the patient is evolving to
be a consumer, whose needs and preferences need to be addressed to
achieve optimal ‘customer satisfaction’, a notion hitherto alien to the
healthcare industry (for the most part).

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Naturally, hospitals envision digital technologies as a solution. But
singular, siloed implementations don’t necessarily serve the purpose.
Digitization trends have a high impact on hospitals, and indeed digital
hospitals are also emerging. But does that result in a true, ‘smart
hospital’? In our opinion: not really. This is how Frost & Sullivan
defines Smart Hospitals.
Our definition
“Smart hospitals are those that optimize, redesign or build new
clinical processes, management systems and potentially even
infrastructure, enabled by underlying digitized networking
infrastructure of interconnected assets, to provide a valuable service
or insight which was not possible or available earlier, to achieve
better patient care, experience and operational efficiency.” The critical
component for smart hospitals is the ability to provide a valuable
service of insight, which was simply not possible or available earlier.
This is what makes a hospital a step further from being just digital,
making it truly smart. Simply digitizing, or making the hospital
paperless (although a great achievement) is not sufficient. We see
current implementations of digital solutions in hospitals as steps in
their journey to become smart. From exploratory implementations to
an intermediate stage, to finally becoming smart where hospitals have
complete alignment of clinical processes and management systems.
Conceptualizing smart hospitals
The smart hospital framework involves three essential layers – data,
insight and access. Data is being collected even today, although not
necessarily from all systems in a hospital, but is not integrated
together to derive ‘smart’ insight, which can be done by feeding it in
to analytics or machine learning software. This insight must be
accessible to the user – a doctor, a nurse, facilities personnel or any
other stakeholder, through an interface including a desktop or a
smartphone or similar handheld device, to empower them to make
critical decisions faster, improving their efficiency.

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There are three areas that any smart hospital addresses – operations,
clinical tasks and patient centricity. Operational efficiency can be
achieved by employing building automation systems and smart asset
maintenance and management solutions, along with improving
internal logistics of mobile assets, pharmaceutical, medical device,
supplies and consumables inventory as well as control over people
flow (staff, patients and visitors). Not only do these solutions reduce
operational costs such as energy requirements, but also reduce the
need for capital expenditures on mobile assets for example, by
improving utilization rates of existing equipment. Patient flow
bottlenecks, when addressed, improve efficiency, allowing more
patients to be ‘processed’ through the system, allowing for more
revenue opportunities at lower costs.
Clinical excellence revolves around solutions for nurses and doctors to
improve their work efficiency, and also solutions designed for various
departments, especially the emergency, surgery and radiology areas.
Clinical excellence also encompasses improving patient outcomes by
ensuring patient engagement and monitoring. A smart hospital needs to
look beyond its walls with a population health view to get patients
discharged quicker while ensuring they recover well, without being
required to be readmitted. Remote monitoring tools can help smart
hospitals achieve this goal.
Apart from the above initiatives, which also serve to improve the
patient experience, other non-clinical aspects can also help in better
patient satisfaction. Consider the smart patient room, which allows
voice-based interactive devices such as Amazon Echo with Alexa or
tablets, to call nurses or dim the lights. Hospital design features such as
large open spaces and gardens to alleviate patient fears associated with
hospitals or customized environments for children, can also aid in the
healing process and ensure faster recovery.

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Hospitals that are already smart The current hotspots for smart hospitals
are Canada, Finland, South Korea, Dubai, Singapore and Australia. Not
all of the hospitals currently truly qualify as smart hospitals as they
don’t necessarily address all of the prerequisites of smart hospitals. Yet,
some of the advanced hospitals which are closer to the journey of
becoming smart include the Humber River Valley Hospital (Canada),
Nuffield Health Bristol Hospital (UK), Farrer Park Hospital
(Singapore), Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (South
Korea) and the Royal Adelaide Hospital (Australia).
Some of the features of the Humber River Valley Hospital in Canada
include it being North America’s first fully-digital hospital (with online
appointment schedule, digital check-in, electronic path lab tests
ordering and results), GE Healthcare Managed Equipment Services, a
RIVA Chemotherapy Robot, Automated Pharmacy Systems (3/4th
hospital supply chain automated) and a Patient Flow Command Center
(currently in progress).
Similarly, at the Farrer Park hospital in Singapore, doctors have
electronic tablets and/or phones linked to hospital systems, the hospital
design combines nature and art with 700 paintings and 15 gardens,
patients have access to telemedicine consulting services, there are fiber
optic connections throughout hospital with 650 WiFi access points, and
the focus is on medical tourism with a combined healthcare-hospitality
approach to include an international desk, hotel and spa in the same
complex, and a shared kitchen with 5-star hotel.
As can be imagined, different hospitals in different regions have taken
varying approaches to becoming smart, but are highly advanced
compared to their peers. Although we do not imagine a significant
number of hospitals to become smart in the coming few years, we do
expect a majority of existing hospitals to begin the journey by
implementing smaller solutions in a piecemeal approach, with
integrations happening with each subsequent implementation to ensure
building a ‘smart’ network of solutions.