Safe Hospital Room of the Future Case Analysis

Safe Hospital Room of the Future Case Analysis

Patient safety is an essential part of patient care that determines their outcomes and experiences within the healthcare system. The healthcare environment within healthcare facilities, especially hospitals providing inpatient care services, determines patient safety. Hospital rooms are critical in the care delivery process and define the entire healthcare environment within the hospital. The healthcare environment, including the hospital rooms, is necessary for patients to access essential healthcare services that contribute to their recovery and attain full health and well-being. The status of the healthcare environment is important as it contributes to the entire patient’s experiences within the healthcare system, their experience with healthcare services provided, and their overall well-being (National Guideline Alliance (NICE) (UK), 2021). Notably, the healthcare environment is changing. Hospitals are now adopting new designs and technologies, especially within patient rooms, that record and report all activities that occur during the delivery of care service to prevent and reduce unnecessary harm that often leads to adverse patient events and improve patient experience. This paper reviews a case on suggestions for an improved hospital room of the future as well as experiences in the current hospital rooms within a public health system and provides suggestions to transform current hospital rooms into the safe hospital rooms of the future.

The Case of a Safe Hospital Room of the Future

Patients walk into hospitals hoping to get the best of safe and quality care available. However, the hospital environment, especially within the hospital rooms, can pose precedented and unprecedented dangers. Hospital rooms are at risk of developing hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), such as ventilator-associated pneumonia, patient falls, and other health complications and conditions that can result in adverse events (Han et al., 2019). Patients do not expect to stay in unsafe hospital rooms that result in having their care disrupted. They expect efficient care delivery and safe and quality care services. The suggestions for a safe hospital room of the future include installing technologies and devices that improve patient safety and experiences. One major suggestion is the use of double-sided linen closets that enable the healthcare staff to restock care supplies without disturbing the patient. Barcodes can also be used to improve the safety of the medication process, including matching medications to the right patient. A two-bin supply system is also suggested for the future safe hospital room to ensure an efficient and continued supply of critical supplies and a hand-washing station to ensure a place for healthcare workers to clean their hands within the hospital room.

The suggestions for a safe hospital of the future also include having sliding glass doors to support information exchange, hand bars in bathrooms, and other fall prevention kits such as nonslip and wristbands to support patient safety, bed alarms to support call nurses, and using ultra-violet light to kill germs and disinfect the rooms, as well using germ-resistant copper alloys on frequently touched surfaces such as IV poles, bed rails, and faucets. The suggestions also include having rules and checklists for providers to promote infection prevention, vents fitted with air filters to maximize air quality within hospital rooms, and the use of Smart pumps for feeding and medication. Furthermore, the suggestions for the safe hospital of the future include employing infrared technology as a reminder system for hand hygiene, use of translation technologies in beds to support staff and patient communication, and use of technologies such as computers outside of the hospital room to monitor the patient’s vital signs in real-time.

Focus of the Safe Hospital Room of the Future

Based on a review of the suggestions provided in “A Safe Hospital Room of the Future,” it can be concluded that the application of these technologies, procedures, and systems is focused on improving patient safety and experience. The use of these technologies within the future hospital room aims to achieve efficiency in patient care delivery by supporting continuous patient monitoring in real-time. The aim of continuous patient monitoring is to achieve the highest standards of patient safety. For instance, the use of monitoring technologies is linked to efficiency in the collection of patient data, including health and behavioral data, which supports the augmentation and evaluation of the current healthcare services delivered to a patient and supports care improvement (Keskimä et al., 2020). Suggestions such as hand bars in bathrooms and other fall prevention kits such as nonslip and wristbands also provide patient monitoring to support patient safety by reducing and preventing the overall risk of falls and other accidents in hospital rooms. Others, such as the suggestion to install hand wash areas, reminders for hand hygiene, and use of germ-resistant copper alloys, aim to improve the spread of infections within the hospital settings while the use of integrated bed language interpreters will significantly reduce miscommunication, improve the efficiency of care delivery, as well reduce the cost of care and patient experiences throughout their stay within the hospital rooms.

Experiences of a Hospital Room in the Current Public Health System

Features Present in the Hospital Room

I have experienced a hospital room in cases where I was, at one time, a patient and, at another, a visitor. The hospital rooms I have experienced were within a public health system, and one experience as a visitor was in a facility that is owned and managed by a private health system. Public healthcare system hospital rooms had some technologies such as the use of bar code tags and scanners for all patients, a hand-washing station that was outside of the room and served several other rooms, bed alarms, disinfection practices, germ-resistant utility ware including sinks and faucets made of stainless steel, and wall-mounted railings to support walking of patients within and outside of the room. Although not within the rooms, the hospital rooms also had checklists for safety precautions mounted on the outside of the rooms at a common notice board and technologies for real-time monitoring of vital signs but were within the same room as the patient. The hospital rooms within the private hospital facility were a bit more advanced and employed better technologies for patient monitoring, including wristbands and bracelets, infrared technologies, and voiced robot-technology assistant to help the patient navigate safely and communicate with the nurses in case of quick attention.

Features Missing, but are Desirable Additions

The missing technologies within the public health system hospital room would have been desirable. Notably, advanced patient monitoring systems, including AI-supported computing systems, were not within the room. The monitoring systems within the room had alarms that were irritating and mostly left me with a ringing and beeping sound in my head. The room also had no infrared technology on the sinks, which would have been important as a reminder to improve hand hygiene.

Transforming Current Hospital Rooms to the Safe Hospital Rooms of the Future

The current hospital rooms, especially those within public health system facilities, lack a majority of the essential technologies that improve patient safety and experiences within the care settings. However, most of these technologies are expensive to implement within publicly financed health systems. The costs of new technologies are a notable barrier to using new technologies within public healthcare settings (Hung et al., 2019). Besides the costs of new technologies, the perception of the usefulness of the new technologies and the usability of the new technologies among care providers and hospital providers is also another major barrier that has slowed technology acceptance and use in hospitals (Jacob et al., 2020). The suggestions provided in the “Safe Hospital Room of the Future” can help transform hospital rooms within public health systems to improve both the quality of care and patient safety, as well as the patients’ experiences during and after the care has been delivered.

As suggested, the use of technologies such as barcodes and other electronic medication management systems has been associated with improved safety of the medication process with fewer medication administration errors reported (Zheng et al., 2021). Other practices and technologies, such as the use of infrared hand-washing reminders, having hand-washing stations within the hospital room rather than outside, and regular UV light disinfection technologies, as well as the use of germ-resistance materials create a safety culture within the hospital room that reduces risks of HAIs and unwanted complications while promoting better patient safety and experiences. A majority of these technologies and associated procedures for transforming the current hospital rooms to achieve the safe hospital room of the future are actually affordable, and others require constant reminders and training to achieve such cultures of patient safety. Besides, the adoption and implementation of these technologies and the implementation of an integrated lead process can significantly improve patient flows within hospital settings as well as achieve efficiency in the delivery of patient care with desired care and patient outcomes (Al Owad et al., 2018).

Conclusion

Although hospitals provide care services that support patient recovery from diseases, conditions, and infections with the aim of improving the health of patients, they also present multiple risks to the health of the patient. Hospitals also experience system delays that may inconvenience care delivery and have negative impacts on the patient experience. The “Safe Hospital Room of the Future” suggestions present how various technologies and practices employed within the hospital room can potentially improve patient safety and efficiency of care delivery, impacting patient experiences and cost of care. For health systems, especially public health systems, to improve hospital rooms and become competitive, there is a need to focus on promoting the need for such technologies among the care providers and provide evidence for their usefulness as well as the usability of such technologies.

References

Al Owad, A., Samaranayake, P., Karim, A., & Ahsan, K. B. (2018). An integrated lean methodology for improving patient flow in an emergency department–a case study of a Saudi Arabian hospital. Production Planning and Control, 29(13). https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2018.1511870

Han, Y., Kim, J. S., & Seo, Y. J. (2019). Cross-sectional study on Patient Safety Culture, Patient Safety Competency, and Adverse Events. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 42(1), 32–40. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945919838990

Hung, L., Liu, C., Woldum, E., Au-Yeung, A., Berndt, A., Wallsworth, C., Horne, N., Gregorio, M., Mann, J., & Chaudhury, H. (2019). The benefits of and barriers to using a social robot PARO in care settings: A scoping review. BMC Geriatrics, 19(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1186/S12877-019-1244-6/TABLES/2

Jacob, C., Sanchez-Vazquez, A., & Ivory, C. (2020). Social, Organizational, and Technological Factors Impacting Clinicians’ Adoption of Mobile Health Tools: Systematic Literature Review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 8(2), e15935. https://doi.org/10.2196/15935

Keskimä, I., Keskimä Ki, I., Lumme, S., Barreto, M., & Barreto, M. (2020). Using electronic health records to monitor, augment and evaluate patient care in Singapore. European Journal of Public Health, 30(Supplement_5). https://doi.org/10.1093/EURPUB/CKAA165.1212

National Guideline Alliance (NICE) (UK). (2021). Healthcare environment. In Healthcare environment: Babies, children and young people’s experience of healthcare: Evidence review. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK574987/

Zheng, W. Y., Lichtner, V., Van Dort, B. A., & Baysari, M. T. (2021). The impact of introducing automated dispensing cabinets, barcode medication administration, and closed-loop electronic medication management systems on work processes and safety of controlled medications in hospitals: A systematic review. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 17(5), 832–841. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SAPHARM.2020.08.001

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Read: “A Safe Hospital Room of the Future” (attached). Then read and review the Production Planning & Control – The Management of Operations Article entitled “An Integrated Lean Methodology for improving patient flow in an emergency department – case study of a Saudi Arabian hospital” located online via the following link:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09537287.2018.1511870?casa_token=1R38q6WWiogAAAAA:LLfaNGwS0MNLiXksNMJWgpcKc6IDYvUO3vPhlpiFcfZu1ALVf8V6g4a2EbQ1s7q9UlKlPXM63VWrow

The Task: Summarize and Synthesize the case using the format seen in the Sample_Case_Study_Analysis(1 ).doc, then answer the two questions seen in the text from the Safe Hospital Room of the Future reading in essay format. Please provide an introduction/background of the industry, a body, and a conclusion, and include supporting peer-reviewed journal articles beyond the case in the text.
In your case analysis, incorporate findings from other sources like http://scholar.google.com and the online library within academic literature. You can find excellent scholarly articles to support your opinion.