Skyrocketing costs, reports of medical errors, consumers demanding better care, and the ever-growing need to move away from paper charts are all leading to a restructuring of the U.S. health system. Information technology (IT) holds the key to a radical transformation of the healthcare industry. For decades, healthcare was slow to embrace IT as a solution, but to address today’s needs and to prepare for tomorrow’s, IT is a must. Advanced technology solutions are giving rise to futuristic “digital hospitals” where everything is connected.

The concept of a “digital” hospital might evoke images of an impersonal facility, but the reality is just the opposite. Digital hospitals – where information, images and clinical know-how are all connected – already exist and can be compared with five-star hotels with regard to quality of care and interpersonal interaction.

Why go digital? By definition, the digital hospital is connected which leads to better efficiency and information flow laying the groundwork for better patient care. The digital infrastructure within these facilities provides the foundation to meet the nation’s call for electronic health records within the next 10 years. With healthcare accounting for at least 15 percent of the U.S. economy, the cost of not adopting IT and advancing healthcare is too great to ignore.

FAST FACTS

• Digitally advanced hospitals experience greater reductions in the average length of patient stay and larger increases in operating revenues.
• These hospitals also ranked higher on seven of 10 process measures in the treatment of three sample conditions: heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia.
• Digital hospitals spend merely three and five percent of their operating budget on IT.
• Approximately 90 percent of the more than 30 billion healthcare communications that occur in the U.S. each year are currently by fax, paper, mail or phone.

Point of View

“We don’t want technology for the sake of technology. Technology is only an enabler – it must always improve processes, speed up workflow, and improve patient care. With a single-source provider, everything should integrate, not just interface.” John Stewart, president and chief executive officer of The Heart Center of Indiana (THCI), which opened its doors in December 2002.

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Case Studies

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