Across the whole of the built environment, hospitals are arguably the facilities that host the most complex array of functions. The sheer variety of different interactions between employees and patients – and the range of equipment and environmental factors that are needed to facilitate those interactions – means that they can be more challenging to manage than any other kind of building. In theory, this means that hospitals stand to make the greatest gains from the advent of digitalisation. Automated data analysis and the integration of smart technology bring huge potential to deal with both the big-picture operational challenges and the minute-by-minute interactions that are crucial to efficiently delivering excellent patient care.
By utilising operational data and developing actionable solutions, digitalisation can deliver efficiencies across the full breadth of processes required for a hospital to run. Patient expectations are increasing, and more look towards the private healthcare providers, where digitalisation is more mature than in the public sector, offering ‘digital front doors’ for a seamless check-in, single person rooms, and the ability for patients to determine their own environment for lighting, temperature, and entertainment. Information about the facility is also readily on hand.
Staff productivity can also be boosted by streamlining workflows and asset management, cutting the administrative burden on employees, and reducing time wasted by searching for equipment, rooms, or people. Meanwhile, Facilities managers can take better care of their assets by implementing data-based security protocols that prevent access by unauthorised individuals, minimise fire and environmental hazards, and help secure medical equipment and critical supplies against theft. Condition-based monitoring of critical plant enables foresight of potential failures, and enables routine maintenance to be prioritised.
Better monitoring and management of energy consumption
Finally, better monitoring and management of energy consumption and costs can drive sustainability gains and help management teams – including in estate management – meet environmental Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). For hospitals looking to save money, improve performance, and maximise the use of limited resources, digital transformation can seem like an obvious and attainable solution.
However, the journey towards building a smart hospital is fraught with challenges, and success is far from guaranteed. According to research by Deloitte, over 70% of digital transformation initiatives fail, highlighting the multi-dimensional complexity in delivering the schemes effectively.
The challenge begins with the nature of existing hospital infrastructure, which typically consists of a patchwork of technologies accumulated over years, if not decades. Alongside this, hospitals often encompass a network of buildings and campuses, each with their own pre-existing systems. The difficulty of navigating these disparate systems is often compounded by the rapid pace of technological innovation, which can render today’s solutions obsolete tomorrow. As a result, digital transformation teams often find themselves grappling with underwhelming outcomes, increased costs, and missed opportunities for improvement. Taken together, these factors mean that there can be no one-size-fits-all solution. Every facility must establish its own unique transformation roadmap that takes into consideration the specific infrastructure needs of each building. However, when it comes to implementing and executing this digitalisation plan, there are three essential ingredients in achieving success.
The three drivers of digital transformation success
The first vital piece of the puzzle is to develop a realistic understanding of the true scale of the challenge. The journey to creating a genuinely operational smart healthcare facility is a multi-stage process that begins with building a solid, interoperable foundation, onto which solutions can be added over time as needs change. Indeed, digital transformation is a continuous process rather than a project with an end-state, and putting in place the infrastructure that will allow continuous improvement and the introduction of innovative technology over time is critical to long-term success. A hospital can only begin to make progress by understanding this big picture, and identifying the outcome objectives to be delivered will ensure that any given project contributes towards the overall goal of providing patients with the best possible level of care.
Secondly, successful digitalisation demands a robust yet agile approach that involves a continuous assessment of goals and achievements. This process begins with an evaluation of the current state of building infrastructure, and how this fits in with defined stakeholder needs. Next, the digital transformation team must design an integrated and interoperable system to generate data for analysis. Only then can new devices, systems, and applications be deployed, tested, and optimised over time to deliver against the intended priorities.
The vast amount of data generated by the operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) requires a robust network to handle the capacity, with existing networks likely to struggle with the increase. This area is often overlooked, but is paramount to successful transformation.
An effective transformation partner
The final ingredient is a transformation partner with the skill and experience needed to tackle the full breadth of problems that digitalisation involves. However, there is no single company that can deliver the full suite of solutions required for this ‘in house’. Success will instead require integrating a wide range of solutions from different providers into a unified programme.
Creating a framework on which to build seamlessly integrated ‘smart’ building solutions was one of the key drivers behind the development of Siemens Xcelerator. By providing a curated portfolio of hardware and software, along with a robust partner ecosystem and marketplace, Xcelerator empowers businesses to execute their digital transformation initiatives with greater ease and efficacy, removing the barriers created by non-compatible vendor ecosystems. Hospitals often grapple with legacy systems, disparate technologies, and evolving regulatory requirements. Siemens recognises these challenges, and offers a holistic solution that addresses each aspect of the transformation journey.
The future of digital and sustainable transformation
Siemens explored the importance of such ecosystems at its recent Transform 2024 event, where more than 4,000 industry leaders, tech experts, and policymakers convened at Manchester Central to explore the future of digital and sustainable transformation. The two-day conference and exhibition saw healthcare providers and system designers explore transferable innovations in other sectors that can easily be transferred and adapted, providing a useful platform to develop innovative relationships.
As hospitals navigate the many challenges they face today, digitalisation offers new solutions that can orchestrate and support the many complex interactions that are vital to hospital operations in a more harmonious and efficient way than has ever been possible before.
Through collaborative efforts and innovative implementation of technology, hospitals can redefine the future of healthcare, and create a world where true patient-centric care is not just a goal, but a reality.
Steve Jamieson
Steve Jamieson is the UK&I Healthcare Sector lead at Siemens Smart Infrastructure, and heads up the business’s work supporting hospitals and healthcare campuses in seizing the opportunities presented by digitalisation and smart technology. He says he is ‘passionate about unlocking the potential for hospitals to aid the healing process by being interactive, intuitive, energy-efficient, and sustainable’.