Yesterday I read a post from Sara Jackson on the Hospital Impact blog entitled “Bacteria and mobile devices: A growing danger for patients?” This report highlights the role that mobile devices, used by both patients and physicians, play in the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
This report was very timely. I had just returned from IBM’s Healthcare Leadership Exchange meeting in Chicago. At this meeting, I attended a demonstration of the Smart Room for hospital patients that was initially rolled out at HIMSS. In a specially designed room in IBM’s Innovation center, Toni Morrison, a registered nurse, demonstrated an integrated system to manage nursing workflow, gain access to electronic patient information and provide “edutainment” to a patient. When a nurse walks into the patient room, her ultrasonic badge logs her into a touch screen monitor mounted on cabinets at the end of the bed. Immediately the monitor displays what was previously done with the patient and what the nurse needs to complete on this visit to the room. Workflow items could include taking vital signs, turning the patient, checking IVs, etc. Clinical information is captured into large touch capable discrete data fields on the monitor. The system is also capable of capturing some clinical values wirelessly from devices in the patient’s room. On a separate large flat screen TV, the patient can review a list of their scheduled medical procedures, review videos about procedures, check email or simply watch TV, thus the term “edutainment.”
The theme of the IBM Healthcare Leadership Exchange was “Transforming Healthcare” and this Smart Room demonstration was a real eye-opener about the practicalities of devices in a real world patient setting. When I asked Toni about using tablet PCs or an Apple iPad versus the stationary touch screen monitor, she explained the challenges of using mobile devices in a hospital setting. One of the key challenges was the potential for confusing two very similar patients with a common medical condition because the nurse had inadvertently not switched patient information going from room to room. The second was the challenge of infection control from a device going from one room to another, as discussed in the report above. This is particularly a concern when the device must be laid down in order to use both hands for a task. Last, the security of the information on a mobile device versus a monitor that logs on for the nurse upon entry to the room and off when she leaves the room. In addition, the Smart Room team has conducted time and motion studies to show that the mounted monitor results in fewer steps for nurses, time savings and increased time for patient care. Toni also pointed out that the patient could log requests into their TV and the workflow system helped the nurse to remember them versus slips of note paper in their pocket.
The seamless integration of technology into the patient room while supporting the clinical workflow at the same time is impressive. The wireless system knows and displays if the patient is in the room, thus helping the nurse to monitor for patients that need assistance in returning to their bed or wandering off. I found the idea of informing the patient of planned activities for the day, access to the outside world via email and ease of communicating with the nursing staff to be a compelling example of how to involve patients in the design of their care and improve patient satisfaction. At a time when healthcare consumerism is increasing, the Smart Room approach could be a key differentiator in the choice of hospital for inpatient services.
SmartRoom, jointly funded by University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and IBM, is headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA. Today, they have 130 Smart Rooms at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in daily operation and are adding other hospitals to their client list. IBM is sponsoring the Smart Room demonstration facilities in multiple IBM locations. To learn more about Smart Room: www.smartroomsolutions.com.
