A hospital room is a familiar place to many of us, but the experience can be different for patients. The environment should be as comforting and healing as possible while providing access to clinical services and support for clinicians. Smart room technology can help deliver both of these needs, with features that empower patients and improve hospital workflows.
When you’re admitted to the hospital, you’re typically placed in a room that corresponds with your medical diagnosis. You may have a private room, but this isn’t guaranteed and you could end up sharing the space with another patient. In addition, some rooms are only available for certain diagnoses, so your medical team will be able to provide you with the most appropriate care.
Hospitals must make accommodations to ensure the safety of their patients, but they also have to consider cost and staff productivity. Having a system that makes the most of smart room technology helps reduce costs and enhance the efficiency of healthcare workers, ultimately improving patient outcomes.
The hospital room is a replica of a real-world hospital room where multiple scenarios, both emergency and non-emergent, can be staged and tested. It’s also an excellent educational tool to help clinicians understand how they can use the technology to better serve their patients.
Several factors affect how a hospital design and room layout can impact patient outcomes, including how easy it is for nurses to interact with the equipment in the space and how much natural light is provided. Additionally, it’s important to ensure that there is enough storage space for medical supplies, equipment and patient belongings.
A standardized single-patient room design was developed to address these issues at St. Joseph’s Hospital. It includes a family area on one side of the bed and a treatment area on the other, with ample space around the bed for care. It’s critical that these areas are separated from each other to reduce the risk of infection and increase privacy.
The room also takes into account other potential safety risks. Because suicides are the most common method of self-harm in a hospital setting, it’s important that hospital designers minimize hazards that can lead to attempts. For example, many hospitals have found that hanging items like bathroom curtain rods, showerheads and television brackets are a risk. St. Joseph’s designed their rooms with breakaway shower rods and minimal other hanging items to mitigate the risk of suicide.
When you’re in the hospital, your room can feel like a revolving door as various people enter your space to check on you, take vitals and so on. This is especially true for patients with a chronic condition, such as heart failure or diabetes. Minimizing these transfers, or “handoffs,” can help reduce the risk of errors and make your hospital stay more comfortable.
For example, ceiling-integrated equipment like patient lifts free up floor space while allowing clinical staff to access and move around the patient’s room more easily. Other innovations include storage drawers built into the wall for medical supplies and power outlets embedded in furniture or on the walls for charging mobile devices.