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A hospital admission (late last year) had me daydreaming on my bed; what a smart hospital would be like.
Let me tell you a little about it.
For starters, I didn't come with my card.
But there's a screenshot of it on our family WhatsApp group.
Ideally without the card, our surname and/or card number should be enough information to be able to retrieve our file.
Turns out I overrated their system.
I had to lay my very weak body on the hard seats in the waiting area, while they ran around looking for the file.
I mean, I showed them the screenshot. But the information there, which is no different from if it was presented was apparently not enough.
They did find it eventually but I was stunned at the lack of organization.
They took my vital information and I waited to see the doctor.
That was another delay. I didn't mind because I knew many hospitals were short on staff. What I observed however, was the back and forth to reach the doctor.
There was no effective means of correspondence between doctors and nurses. The nurse had to run up and down the badly constructed stairs (I must add) several times to check if the doctor was free.
Unnecessary stress for both the overstressed health workers and the patient as I also had to make that climb.
Then upon admission, yelling out to nurses whenever I needed anything at all was the norm. Nurses who may be on another floor entirely.
See, I was delighted to be discharged.
But the experience got me thinking: how can we have a more effective system of healthcare delivery?
Is there a way to reduce the stress on both healthcare providers and patients?
Specifically, how can we effectively introduce technology to the seemingly mundane hospital duties?
How can we make our hospitals smarter?
Which leads us to the meat of this article.
The idea of smart hospitals is so broad and advanced that thinking about it especially in Nigeria may seem like a forever venture.
I tried to pick the simplest, easiest to achieve smart hospital technologies that can immediately have the most significant impact in Nigerian hospitals.
As you'll find, it's not necessarily the complexity of the machines that makes a smart hospital, but how it ultimately makes hospital processes better.
When you hear the word smart, what comes to mind?
Technology right?
But as with all things technology, the goal can go from making life and processes easier to pampering equipment and putting them before people.
That quickly moves from smart to a mixture of liability and technology worship.
Where you only brag about all the facilities put in place and all the technology in use yet, little improvement in productivity and quality of life.
How do we stop this from happening - especially in a sector as sensitive as healthcare?
The only mantra has to be - PEOPLE FIRST.
We will explore the concept of smart hospitals and most especially, what makes a hospital smart.
But before then, what exactly is a smart hospital?
A smart hospital is a hospital that incorporates technology to optimize hospital processes, improve patient care, and introduce new capabilities in a sustainable, safe and efficient manner.
Now, this is a very simple definition of what a smart hospital is. But at the end of the day, improving healthcare delivery is the goal.
Importance of Smart Hospitals
1. Improved patient, visitor and health workers' comfort.
2. Improved safety of people in the hospital and reduced transmission of diseases.
3. Accuracy in record keeping.
4. Improved diagnosis of patients' conditions.
5. Increased productivity of workers.
6. Efficient service delivery and better patient management.
Seeing the advantages above, the idea of smart hospitals seem very appealing (which it is).
The real question then is:
What are some ways to make a hospital smarter?
1. Digitized Check-ins
Commonly used in airports, automated check-in systems(commonly known as check-in kiosks) allow passengers to do self check-in and pay with credit or debit cards.
These kiosks provide a valid boarding pass at the end. Passengers save time and avoid long queues by using check-in kiosks at busy airports.
Many hospitals in Nigeria do not have patients' records in a system. Everything is still on paper.
Instead of manual check-ins and registration full of boring paperwork, delays and the back and forth common in many hospitals, automated check-ins should replace them.
Digitized check-ins will free up more time for staff, ensure more accuracy in record keeping and time spent on waiting will be reduced.
If possible, smart cards can be issued which patients can use the next time they come to the hospital. By a simple swipe and password input, patients can check in and have their record located and accessed.
2. Digital scheduling:
This should be available for both patients and staff.
For Patients:
They should be able to begin the registration process before getting to the hospital. By this they can book appointments, schedule and reschedule check-up, look up antenatal dates, delivery date, etc.
This will be similar to having a dashboard (just like in universities) to help with record keeping. Also, the different HODs and staff currently in various departments can be shown. This can also help in directing patient complaints in event of misdemeanor.
For instance, harassment, neglect of duties or misdiagnosis by health workers to patients. Something as simple as knowing who to address such complaints to can be of help to patients. This way, someone can be held accountable if nothing is done.
For Staff:
Staff can sign-in and out, check ward rounds, shifts, etc.
Having an efficient database will also help in times of emergencies. With a smart card and/or record with a hospital, health workers can quickly scan a patient's file for their medical history to enable more accurate diagnosis.
3. Use of Robots:
Robots can be used to deliver drugs, check up on patients admitted. They don't have to be so complex either.
In China and Rwanda, robots were used to deliver drugs to Covid-19 patients and do temperature checks. It may seem like nothing but, that is the work a health worker should have done.
For those minutes that the robots freed up for the health workers, they can attend to more patients or simply rest.
4. Use of Wearable technology:
Wearable technology can send real-time data about things like heart rate, blood pressure, temperature. This can greatly reduce time used to check for this manually.
5. Use of technology to promote Connectivity
This is very important in hospitals for patients, visitors and the health workers.
Health workers:
Better correspondence between hospital workers. There should be ways of quickly reaching out to colleagues within the hospital and even connect to experts outside the hospital.
This will lead to better patient care, quicker diagnosis and better treatment plan.
For Patients:
Instead of coming to the hospital for the simplest complaints, or completely missing out due to some circumstance, patients can reach out to their healthcare providers through other means e.g. video calls.
Also, in the hospital, they should be able to stay connected with their loved ones via provision of charging ports and wifi.
Visitors:
Family members sometimes spend hours, days and even weeks with their admitted loved ones. Provision should be made for them.
By ensuring good internet connectivity, visitors of patients can stay connected to family members outside, access social media for distraction and even work remotely.
There should also be alerts that can be used in cases of reactions or unexpected changes in patients. This will prevent yelling out to nurses or running several flights of stairs to get to the nearest doctor.
This is by no means an exhaustive list. It doesn't take away the primary problem of poor health worker to patient ratio. Neither does it examine the case of poor remuneration for healthcare providers.
Rather, it's a list of simple ways by which hospital processes can be made easier for both patients and health workers.
Anyone who has visited the average Nigerian hospital will agree that deployment of at least one of these technologies will lead to a significant improvement in delivering healthcare services.
So, if you are a health worker, an aid provider, a government official or someone concerned about the poor delivery of healthcare services in hospitals, you can take up any of this.
By knowing what to do, we can effectively tackle poor healthcare delivery one hospital and one smart method at a time.
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