Technology as we know it now is light years ahead of its state a decade ago. We witness, on a daily basis, major technological advancements. Every domain whether it is business or food, is taking advantage of various technological tools. Given this, the healthcare industry is not far behind as well.
The introduction of technology in healthcare has become a historical topic now as more and more tools and frameworks are being implemented as of today in hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
This blog explores some major applications of technology in healthcare facilities management and how these applications are impacting our lives.
Improving Asset Management
Equipment Management
Studies show that there are over 40+ hours that are wasted every month by hospital staff looking for misplaced equipment. This can be mitigated through the use of GPS tracking technology.
Not only does GPS tracking ensure efficient tracking of hospital equipment but it also prevents the equipment from being stolen.
Staff Management
In hospital management, staff responsibilities can become jumbled up resulting in reduced performance. The use of various AI tools can be leveraged to distribute responsibilities efficiently across different staff members.
One application of this was carried out in a labor-and-delivery ward. The tools distributed responsibilities among the staff and a 90% satisfaction rate was recorded by the staff members.
Improving Patient Experience
Telehealth Solutions
People can get treated for their diseases straight from their homes without having to commute. This is made possible by a technology called telehealth solutions. Some of the common applications of telehealth tools in facility technology are:
- Predicting Patient Count: Predicting how many patients to expect at a hospital on a given day.
- Performing Administrative Tasks: Performing tasks like appointment scheduling, sending reminders, and helping visitors navigate.
- Post-discharge care: Sending reminders for medication intake, distributing surveys and analyzing test results.
- Virtual Care and Remote Monitoring: A major application of telehealth services where patients do not need to be physically present to receive treatment.
Healthcare Data Analytics
Data analytics has applications in a wide variety of industries and healthcare facilities management is one of them. Some of the major applications for hospital analytics include:
- Strategic Planning: Enabling hospital managers to understand patient demands.
- Monitoring Performance: Tracking employee performance data for check and balance.
- Staff Requirement: By tracking employee presence, we can determine when and where a senior staff member or doctor is required to be present.
Minimizing Energy Consumption
Unlike other facilities, hospitals are in use 24/7 and this causes a large amount of energy consumption. There are various technological solutions to minimize this consumption. In essence, there are three major ways of optimizing energy consumption in healthcare facilities:
- Using Data Analytics: Historical usage data and analytics can help point out areas where energy is being wasted.
- Machine Learning and AI: Various machine learning algorithms can be employed to predict energy consumption based on historical usage data.
- Cloud Computing: A lot of healthcare facilities can reduce their energy consumption to half just by deploying their facilities to the cloud.
Conclusion
So far we have learnt four major areas where technology has helped improve healthcare facilities management. Ranging from asset management to optimizing the use of resources, technological solutions are revolutionizing the healthcare industry. Now it is up to us to recognize this influence and make the most out of it.
At Penguin, we are working hard to develop and deploy various technological solutions not only related to healthcare but beyond. Our GPS tracking technology can help healthcare facilities in tracking and managing assets much more efficiently.
Join us to revolutionize healthcare together!