Health Care is evolving as the industry undergoes significant change. Companies must adapt to new realities to remain an asset within the industry and sustain growth in today’s environment.
With ageing infrastructure in some countries and increased demand for more beds in others, hospital executives and governments should consider rethinking how to optimize inpatient and outpatient settings and integrate digital technologies into traditional hospital services to truly create a health system without walls.
Emerging features including centralized digital centres to enable decision making (think: air traffic control for hospitals), continuous clinical monitoring, targeted treatments (such as 3D printing for surgeries), and the use of smaller, portable devices will help characterize acute-care hospitals.
Digital and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can help enable on-demand interaction and seamless processes to improve the patient experience.
Robotic process automation (RPA) and AI can allow caregivers to spend more time providing care and less time documenting it.
Digital supply chains, automation, robotics, and next-generation interoperability can drive operations management and back-office efficiencies.
The well-being of patients and staff members—with an emphasis on the importance of environment and experience in healing—will likely be important in future hospital designs.
Many of these are already in play. And hospital executives should be planning how to integrate technology into newly-built facilities and retrofit it into older ones.
Technology will likely underlie most aspects of future hospital care. But care delivery—especially for complex patients and procedures—may still require hands-on human expertise.