Smart hospitals:
architecture, key technologies & benefits

Smart hospitals: architecture, key technologies & benefits

January 9, 2024

Smart technologies for healthcare settings

Ordinary hospitals can use innovative technology sporadically and without a significant transformation of essential workflows. Meanwhile, a smart hospital employs tools like 5G connectivity, AI, IoT, augmented reality, and others in most of its workflows to automate and enhance clinical and business processes. One healthcare facility can employ one or more of the following technologies in order to improve its healthcare services and qualify as a smart hospital.

  • Smart beds
  • Blood collection devices
  • Medical imaging machines
  • Inventory real-time location trackers
  • Pharmacy barcode readers
  • Temperature, humidity, and hygiene sensors
  • Patient monitoring gadgets
  • Robot-assisted surgeries
  • Patient support and educational chatbots
  • Medical image enhancement and discerning
  • Drug effect modeling
  • Enhanced medical images for educational purposes
  • Big data analytics software for diagnostics
  • Document management automation
  • Complementary mobile apps for telemedicine suites
  • Patient apps for managing electronic medical records
  • Remote access to healthcare systems for clinicians
  • Convenient appointment scheduling
  • On-the-go medication order management
  • Patient care materials for nursing personnel and caregivers
  • Virtual consultations
  • Real-time communication between patients and care providers
  • Continuous patient monitoring
  • Remote diagnostics
  • Knowledge exchange between healthcare professionals
  • Real-time data sharing among multiple healthcare facilities
  • Enhanced diagnostic images
  • VR-enabled remote surgeries
  • AR-based educational materials
  • 2D images to 3D models conversion
  • Healthcare facilities’ virtual modeling
  • Drug tracing tools
  • Enhanced patient data security
  • Clinical trial security
  • Cryptocurrency medical payments
  • Medical staff credentialing
  • Secure e-prescriptions

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Smart hospital architecture

A smart hospital consists of multiple systems that are connected to each other and a single cloud server where the majority of shared data is stored and processed. The type of systems included varies from organization to organization, depending on the healthcare providers’ specialties, services, and needs. However, the basic concept of intelligent software flawlessly integrated with each other remains the same.

PatientsPatient portalsSales & marketing teamsCRMAdminsAdmin panelMedical IoT devicesCloud server for data storage & processingmHealth & telemedicine appsEHRMedical image analysis softwareFinancial software
(medical billing, etc.)Hospital, laboratory, pharmacy management systemsDoctors & nurses
Patient health records are the most valuable source of data that can be used for patient treatment personalization as well as the basis for population health management, preventive healthcare campaigns, and medical research. Smart technologies like blockchain, RPA, and AI-powered analytics can both assure EHR data safety, its secure transfer, and efficient processing.
Medical equipment and software made part of the Internet of Medical Things help keep track of hospital inventory easier, create a safe environment for patients, and facilitate more even resource and task distribution, contributing to more efficient hospital management.

Supplementing your medical CRM with analytical capabilities and conversational AI can make marketing and sales campaigns more personalized, transparent, and efficient, as well as save time on documentation management, as proved by Salesforce Health Cloud enhanced with Einstein AI.

Combined with machine learning-based anomaly detection and pattern recognition, AI-powered computer vision can easily identify signs of potential health complications from medical images and complement physicians’ expertise for more accurate diagnoses.

RPA tools can automatically transfer data between lab information systems and EHRs, assisting in document management. Meanwhile, advanced analytical mechanisms can process data from LIS and draw more accurate insights from lab tests.

Integrating patient portals with smart technologies like healthcare-specific NLP can help patients find educational materials about their condition quicker, better understand their test results, or automatically schedule appointments with care providers according to their treatment or immunization timelines.

Smart hospitals are not aimed at clinicians only, as pharma companies also benefit from automating inventory, prescription, documentation, and financial management with RPA tools. Moreover, they can use powerful analytics solutions and blockchain to discover more effective drugs and protect patients from fraud.

Financial software

Automation can make insurance claims’ processing faster and more efficient. In the meantime, smart contracts and innovative payment processing software can make paying for health services easier for patients and allow healthcare organizations to receive financial turnaround faster.

Smart hospital use cases

Smart hospitals accounted for a market value of $30 billion in 2021, which serves as additional proof they have become essential in the healthcare industry.

Scheme title: How smart hospitals answer the challenges of modern healthcare

Modern challenges & requirements of the healthcare industryMore pro-active & demanding patientsPatient-centric healthcareNation-wide staff shortagesWorkflow automationOld-fashioned research methods are not enoughData-driven medical careMedical professionals want more data sharing transparency & securityHealthcare interoperabilitySmart hospital use scenarios

Patient-centric healthcare

Smart hospitals allow medical care providers to focus more on patients' physical and psychological well-being. This can be achieved by setting up dedicated physical and digital spaces and crafting patient engagement strategies to enhance patient experience and speed up their recovery (the so-called healing environments). Examples include mobile apps for self-service scheduling and 24/7 clinical record accessibility, teledermatology apps for self-check up, AI-powered smart triage solutions, and health wearables and other telemedicine tools that constantly monitor patients from home.
Benefits
  • Enhanced patient experience
  • Better patient outcomes
  • Less pressure on the ER and ICU

Workflow automation

Another way for smart hospitals to mitigate operational and administrative burden is through automation, be it physical (with actual robots) or digital (robotic process automation bots). The adoption of robotics and artificial intelligence tools to streamline clinical processes, coupled with IoT for patient data collection, remarkably enhances the accuracy and efficiency of routine hospital operations and grants physicians more time and energy to focus on patient well-being.
Benefits
  • Resource and time savings
  • Better workload distribution among care teams
  • Solving staff shortage problems

Data-driven medical care

Smart hospitals complement physicians' experience and intuition with solid data analytics solutions for more efficient risk identification and diagnostics. This requires collecting patient data from EHRs or via wearables and processing it with machine learning-powered analytical systems to better understand their conditions. A similar logic applies to medical equipment, which can be monitored with dedicated sensors to spot any signs of malfunction and recommend suitable maintenance operations.
Benefits
  • More precise diagnostics and clinical decision-making
  • Enhanced preventive health management
  • Improved patient safety
Hospitals are not just a bunch of technical assets but rather complex systems combining technologies, processes, and professionals. Successful healthcare digital transformation requires full harmonization inside all system components. Due to their high-speed connectivity and sophisticated data protection protocols, smart hospitals serve as hubs that facilitate unobstructed secure data flow between different departments and facilities, private practitioners, laboratories, pharmacies, and even insurance providers.
Benefits
  • Enhanced data security
  • Streamlined patient journeys
  • Higher job satisfaction rates among healthcare professionals

Real-life examples of smart hospitals

Healthcare industry players who implemented smart technologies into essential administrative or clinical workflows have witnessed their beneficial effect on the entire organization.

BPM automation for UK care homes

2x

cost reduction

We delivered a cloud-based application that helps UK care homes to organize employees’ shifts and workload with thousands of predefined tasks, gives a full view of task fulfillment, and provides insight into employee performance. With the automation of the majority of business processes, long-term care facilities significantly increased their efficiency.

Mobile adverse event reporting app

2x

submitted reports

We implemented an mHealth application that enables patients and healthcare professionals to capture, process, and report adverse event data in real-time. The app doubled the report creation speed and reduced manual efforts associated with the process by 95%, which led to more submitted reports and enhanced drug safety.

Philips PerformanceFlow

€ 1 mn

saved

Philips PerformanceFlow

Example by Philips

A hospital in Amsterdam was able to speed up the location of their smart hospital beds, ECG or ultrasound machines, infusion pumps, and other mobile equipment by 20%. The automation of hospital inventory management allowed healthcare personnel to become more efficient, prevented theft and misplacement of equipment, and saved costs.

Philips patient monitoring solution

63%

less transfers to the ICU

Philips patient monitoring solution

Example by Philips

A Saratoga Hospital in New York implemented healthcare predictive modeling with a solution monitoring patients’ vital signs to identify people with deteriorating conditions early and prevent crisis situations. This solution also connects to the hospital’s EHR, providing datasets to tune healthcare analytics software further.

BPM automation for UK care homes

2x

cost reduction

We delivered a cloud-based application that helps UK care homes to organize employees’ shifts and workload with thousands of predefined tasks, gives a full view of task fulfillment, and provides insight into employee performance. With the automation of the majority of business processes, long-term care facilities significantly increased their efficiency.

Mobile adverse event reporting app

2x

submitted reports

We implemented an mHealth application that enables patients and healthcare professionals to capture, process, and report adverse event data in real-time. The app doubled the report creation speed and reduced manual efforts associated with the process by 95%, which led to more submitted reports and enhanced drug safety.

Philips PerformanceFlow

€ 1 mn

saved

Philips PerformanceFlow

Example by Philips

A hospital in Amsterdam was able to speed up the location of their smart hospital beds, ECG or ultrasound machines, infusion pumps, and other mobile equipment by 20%. The automation of hospital inventory management allowed healthcare personnel to become more efficient, prevented theft and misplacement of equipment, and saved costs.

Philips patient monitoring solution

63%

less transfers to the ICU

Philips patient monitoring solution

Example by Philips

A Saratoga Hospital in New York implemented healthcare predictive modeling with a solution monitoring patients’ vital signs to identify people with deteriorating conditions early and prevent crisis situations. This solution also connects to the hospital’s EHR, providing datasets to tune healthcare analytics software further.

BPM automation for UK care homes

2x

cost reduction

We delivered a cloud-based application that helps UK care homes to organize employees’ shifts and workload with thousands of predefined tasks, gives a full view of task fulfillment, and provides insight into employee performance. With the automation of the majority of business processes, long-term care facilities significantly increased their efficiency.

Mobile adverse event reporting app

2x

submitted reports

We implemented an mHealth application that enables patients and healthcare professionals to capture, process, and report adverse event data in real-time. The app doubled the report creation speed and reduced manual efforts associated with the process by 95%, which led to more submitted reports and enhanced drug safety.

Philips PerformanceFlow

€ 1 mn

saved

Philips PerformanceFlow

Example by Philips

A hospital in Amsterdam was able to speed up the location of their smart hospital beds, ECG or ultrasound machines, infusion pumps, and other mobile equipment by 20%. The automation of hospital inventory management allowed healthcare personnel to become more efficient, prevented theft and misplacement of equipment, and saved costs.

Philips patient monitoring solution

63%

less transfers to the ICU

Philips patient monitoring solution

Example by Philips

A Saratoga Hospital in New York implemented healthcare predictive modeling with a solution monitoring patients’ vital signs to identify people with deteriorating conditions early and prevent crisis situations. This solution also connects to the hospital’s EHR, providing datasets to tune healthcare analytics software further.

A roadmap to making hospitals smart

Our experts support healthcare professionals throughout all stages of new technology adoption, including consultations, custom software development, existing systems’ tuning, third-party tools integration, and data migration.

1

Preparation

Analyze business and clinical workflows
Assess the organization’s infrastructure and capabilities for updates
Define main requirements and clarify the tech stack
Outline main project milestones
Work out an implementation and data governance strategy to ensure effective and sustainable system adoption

2

Implementation

Develop software based on smart technologies needed to re-engineer the selected workflows or upgrade and tune the existing systems according to the practice’s needs
Integrate the required healthcare software to create a connected smart hospital ecosystem
Migrate data from legacy software to the new one if needed
Perform all-round quality assurance and ensure adherence to compliance and security requirements

3

Post-deployment

Monitor the smart hospital ecosystem performance
Resolve any emerging issues
Update and upgrade the software if needed
Train personnel for more efficient usage of new technologies
Introduce new technologies

Our smart hospital services

Itransition has extensive experience in the healthcare industry, delivering high-quality HIPAA- and FDA-compliant software adhering to healthcare security standards.

Consulting

Our experts will analyze your organization’s business vision, infrastructure, and software to create a plan for transforming your hospital into a smart facility. We will recommend the best-fitting solutions, define implementation milestones, and help estimate the budget and timeline according to your organization’s requirements.

Custom app development

When there are no fitting solutions available on the market, our developer team creates high-quality software for medical devices and other smart hospital needs from scratch. We make sure that custom applications fit perfectly into your hospital ecosystem, cover clinical and business requirements, and are secure, resilient, user-friendly, and flexible.

Implementation

We will help you select the best-fitting out-of-the-box technologies and flawlessly integrate them into your digital hospital ecosystem. Our team can also train medical personnel and other end-users to use new software and provide them with post-implementation support of your choice.

Legacy software upgrade

We help healthcare providers modernize existing software with new technologies. Our experts can also integrate healthcare systems with additional modules or third-party systems to achieve modern functionality without changing the software completely. The upgrade can either be a one-time project, a part of an ecosystem preparation for new software implementation, or continuous performance monitoring and support.

How to prepare for smart hospital transformation

To avoid wasting your budget and efforts, make sure to come up with a realistic implementation plan for each smart technology you want to implement in your hospital environment.

  1. Analyze existing hardware and connectivity to assess if they can support new technology you want to introduce. If not, make a plan and carve out the budget for necessary updates.
  2. Decide which health services or workflows you want to change with smart hospital solutions. Don’t adopt smart healthcare for the sake of a trend and clearly understand your desired outcomes and have a way to measure them.
  3. Consider the overall cost for each new technology adoption, including the price of consultancy, hidden expenses, and maintenance. Keep in mind that implementation costs vary significantly depending on your organization’s size, the functionality you require, and how fast it has to be implemented without disrupting your operations.
  4. Start small and adopt one technology at a time. After it is fully implemented into workflows and is used consistently, stakeholders together with medical professionals should analyze the effects it has on the healthcare facilities and personnel, and then consult IT specialists on whether any additional improvements to the health IT ecosystem should be made.
How to prepare for smart hospital transformation

Smart hospital challenges & how to overcome them

While hospitals tend to prepare extensively for smart hospital implementation, unexpected challenges still arise along the way. Here’s how an experienced implementation partner would recommend healthcare providers tackle them.

Medical personnel are reluctant to change the established workflows.

Medical personnel are reluctant to change the established workflows.

Educate your staff on the importance of smart hospital initiatives. Showcase how new technology can benefit them and their patients, pay attention to their concerns and suggestions and address them timely and respectfully.

The existing software is not interoperable with new systems.

The existing software is not interoperable with new systems.

Hospitals become truly smart when innovative technologies are fully integrated with essential medical software throughout the organization. If you cannot update the existing software, make sure to come up with other integration means like third-party connectors to facilitate data flow among your systems.

Innovative technologies put a strain on the network and consume more power.

Innovative technologies put a strain on the network and consume more power.

Decision-makers and software vendors should consider the power consumption and network capabilities during the planning stage of new technology implementation. Most smart hospital initiatives comply with ecological regulations for power consumption.
Making hospitals smarter is essential to healthcare innovation

Making hospitals smarter is essential to healthcare innovation

By embracing the full spectrum of technologies available today, this innovative model has been able to provide flexible, data-driven medical care, streamline clinical workflows, relieve medical personnel's workload, and enhance patient experience. However, smart hospitals are something more than a mere collection of technologies with impressive names, and reimagining healthcare from the ground up will require a radical redesign of several clinical functions, along with proper upskilling initiatives and solid partnerships with other institutions to exchange data and expertise. In short, smart hospitals can be truly smart in so far as we wisely adopt all those best practices to harmonize the aforementioned triad of staff, clinical processes, and tools.

Making hospitals smarter is essential to healthcare innovation

Ready to get ahead with smart hospital transformation?

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FAQ

What is the difference between a smart hospital & a virtual hospital?

A healthcare facility that provides in-office medical services to patients can classify as a smart hospital, while a virtual hospital is an organization that delivers health care exclusively remotely.

Are ER, ICU, operating rooms & other specialized departments a part of a smart hospital?

Innovative technology can benefit workflows in any area of healthcare. They can be integrated with dental EHR systems, telehealth apps for pediatricians, or nursing software, as well as support medical devices in specialized hospital wards.

What is the smartest hospital in the world?

Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Massachusetts General Hospital, and The Johns Hopkins Hospital are considered the most technologically advanced hospitals in the US. There are also many renowned smart hospitals in Europe, India, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore.

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