Healthcare facilities grapple with myriads of challenges, from the inability to contain infectious diseases to poor maintenance of patient records, understaffing, underequipment, and everything in between. Most healthcare challenges result from slow or poor adoption of cutting-edge technologies.
Countless studies have shown that many healthcare professionals (HCPs) would instead maintain legacy systems than adopt emerging tech innovations, contending that the latter is both costly and highly disruptive. But unknown, such as HCPs, embracing advanced technologies can revolutionize the healthcare business by reducing overheads, optimizing staff productivity, and enhancing overall efficiency.
In this blog, we look at the various tips you can implement to streamline operations in your healthcare facility.
1. Minimize Energy Consumption with IoT
Healthcare facilities are one of the most energy-intensive commercial buildings, often ranking alongside food services. Conservative estimates indicate that hospitals consume an average of 193,300 BTUs of energy per square foot annually.
High energy consumption can escalate overheads, in addition to posing a greater threat to the climate. Fortunately, you can reduce the energy bills in your healthcare business using the Internet of Things (IoT).
Integrating IoT into your HVAC solutions provides real-time tracking of the energy consumption of your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. You can control various HVAC components on the go, reducing expenses otherwise incurred when these equipment run needlessly longer.
Healthcare facilities may also deploy IoT to automatically switch off lights in unoccupied rooms, open/shut blinds depending on daylight, and control access to specific rooms.
2. Upgrade to Telehealth with Telecommunication Software
Telehealth is a decades-long concept. However, it was not until COVID-19 that healthcare professionals worldwide truly appreciated the significance of telemedicine.
For the uninitiated, telehealth has many benefits, including controlling infectious diseases and fostering better family connections. The latter can be particularly instrumental for HCPs dealing with terminally ill patients.
Telemedicine patients also love that they don’t have to contend with grueling clinic trips for each medical appointment. This can save transportation costs and minimize exposure to other people’s germs.
The good news is that there are numerous telehealth software at your disposal. Apps like Mend stand out for their user-friendliness and ability to automate various documents, such as medical histories, prescriptions, and insurance information.
3. Track Pathogenesis with Big Data
Big data deals with too large and complex information for humans to process accurately and promptly. That makes it a critical requirement for established healthcare centers that handle large patient volumes daily.
Hospitals could leverage big data to better understand the cause of diseases. They can then develop interventions for early diagnosis and effective treatment.
By integrating big data into your healthcare business, it’s easier to model possible medical scenarios based on a patient’s age, demographic, and medical history. This can significantly shorten the time that patients take in your practice and improve overall treatment outcomes.
4. Automate Repetitive Tasks with AI
It’s almost impossible to discuss revolutionary healthcare technologies without mentioning artificial intelligence (AI).
Automating repetitive tasks is AI’s most pivotal application in medical facilities. HCPs can use artificial intelligence to streamline their billing, invoicing, and inventory management processes. AI minimizes the need for human intervention in mundane tasks, allowing you to redeploy staff to other critical departments of your healthcare business.
AI has also become an integral part of surgeries. By embracing AI-assisted robotic surgery systems like Intuitive’s Da Vinci, you can expect a radical increase in surgery success rates in your practice.
Moreover, HCPs could deploy AI and big data to optimize patient records. Both technologies can scrutinize massive datasets and identify consistent patterns, accelerating the often difficult task of patient clustering.
5. Conduct Predictive Maintenance with AI
Repairing hospital equipment can cost thousands of dollars, depending on the malfunctioning device. For instance, the monthly cost of maintaining a standard MRI machine is $2,000-$10,000.
Still, this pales compared to the amount you’d incur to repair broken MRI equipment, not to mention the associated operational downtimes. Your best bet is to incorporate AI-powered predictive maintenance tools into your systems.
AI-based predictive maintenance software continuously gathers data from machine sensors. These programs analyze the collected information to detect early warning signs of equipment failure, such as overheating and voltage fluctuations. They then alert the hospital’s maintenance technicians, who respond proactively to avert a total breakdown.
6. Implement Safe Waste Disposal with IoT
IoT’s application in healthcare centers isn’t exclusive to tracking energy consumption. You could also deploy this technology for safe waste disposal.
The recent past has seen a surge in the demand for smart medical waste management systems, which utilize IoT-enabled sensors to alert hospital workers when waste containers are full. This prevents overfilling, which could lead to environmental pollution or (in the case of biohazards) cross-contamination.
Smart containers track the level of waste using installed infrared or ultrasonic sensors. The sensors rely on collected data, which could be based on their maximum weight capacity, gas emissions, fluid content, and temperature.
However, not all waste should be tossed into the trash can. Healthcare facilities can prioritize waste recycling to enhance cost efficiency and conserve natural resources.
Wrap Up
Embracing cutting-edge technology is the secret to streamlining operations in healthcare centers. These innovations can augment patient monitoring, enhance employee productivity, and minimize overheads by automating numerous routine tasks.
Whether you’re a small walk-in clinic or an emergency care, you’ll benefit immensely from integrating the above tech solutions into your healthcare practice.