Hospital design experts Christina Grimes and Ryan Hullinger discuss how the generation (from telehealth to avatars) is being incorporated into healthcare settings.
The Covid-19 pandemic ushered in the mass adoption of the technology, with platforms like Zoom followed overnight, and social media and streaming facilities seeing a boom in user numbers. Telemedicine has peaked as a way to slow the spread of disease and allow others to get non-urgent care, with 37% of adults reporting telehealth facilities in 2021. While this increase has slowed due to the reopening of facilities, the convenience of telehealth for patients and providers means it’s here to stay.
In addition to telemedicine, smart, built-in in-room generation, mobile apps, built-in interactive technologies, and synthetic intelligence have huge implications not only for the way care is delivered, but also for the design of hospitals and clinics. 3 tactics in which generation improves patient outcomes and influences the design of healthcare, and how to integrate it, whether on a small or large scale, into the care environment.
A more comforting experience
Some of life’s most emotional moments take place in hospitals and care facilities: the birth of a child, a life-changing diagnosis, or the death of someone you enjoyed. It’s no surprise that those environments can be tense or cause anxiety. However, new technologies are infusing hospitals and clinics with interactive art, biophilia (connections to nature), and other tactics to decrease tension and give patients a calmer, healing experience.
As virtual natives, young people and adolescents have grown up interacting with screens and people online, a dynamic that we try to incorporate into the hospitality experience of young people. At Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital in California, the hospital worked with experiential design firm ESI Design to create interactive presentations planned to be installed in the lobby that allow pediatric patients to design a personalized animal avatar that will remind them of their experience as a patient. providing comfort and anxiety relief. The animals inhabit a fictional forest that features realistic flowers, trees, and grass and evokes nature’s stress-reducing benefits (a phenomenon that applies even when simulating the herbaceous environment).
Solutions like this can also be incorporated into the patient registration procedure, the hospital’s online page, or the cell phone app, facilitating a sense of connection and peace of mind even before patients arrive at the hospital. In patient rooms, built-in FaceTime or video chat features can combat the emotions of isolation. offering the ability to communicate with family, play video games or stream entertainment with friends, or even move on to school virtually.
Improved satisfaction
On the staff side, generation can help increase retention and satisfaction by allowing for greater flexibility. For specialists, telehealth allows a provider to be in a clinic in one position in the morning and then at home or somewhere else on the screen in the morning. afternoon, giving doctors more information about the schedule and environment and allowing them to spend more time with patients.
Technology can also make it possible to carry out responsibilities remotely that in the past were only done in person. For example, if a healthcare facility makes the decision to implement a decentralized intensive care unit (ICU), in which one or more physicians have access to the patient from multiple sites, the user tracking that extended care unit would likely be remotely stationed in a work area that has become more affordable and available post-pandemic.
Designing Healthcare and Telehealth Environments
What does the growing adoption of telehealth mean for local desires in hospitals and clinics?If a specialist can do it remotely from anywhere, will fewer rooms be wanted to attend to patients?Or do you want more area to accommodate new equipment? Depending on the circumstances, either scenario would possibly be true.
One of the effects of technology on the design of healthcare environments is square footage considerations, which are ultimately governed by the Facility Standards Institute (FGI). Current standards for teledata rooms stipulate a minimum surface area and transparent area around each apparatus rack. This means that the room gradually gets bigger as each of the appliances is added. As the rooms get larger, the areas of the land increase and the overall area in the construction of a hospital is adjusted in proportion to the number of rooms it serves.
In the hospitalization ward, advances in “smart hospitals” allow for greater technological integration. Environmental controls that encounter when a patient gets out of bed can send an alert to caregivers and turn on lighting fixtures for patients and staff. Or, if when a patient in the ICU begins to crash, that same wise generation can automatically alert the reaction team, turn on the lights to maximize visibility in the room, prioritize the elevator to that floor, and notify the surgical team.
Finally, generation can also have an effect not only on the design of the building, but also on the design procedure itself. When architects compare two other features of the terrain design, they can now run simulations that automatically check various features (e. g. , how far nurses want to travel to maximize time spent with patients), making designers smarter in how we plan and execute hospitals and clinics.
There is no doubt that generation contributes greatly to patient care and treatment. But questions about the privacy and convenience of remote care can create challenges. Generation can also provide both ends of this spectrum at other times. On the patient side, some are quite comfortable with the concept of receiving care or diagnosis through a screen, while others prefer and require a hands-on examination. On the staff side, some feel that it is more effective to see their patients virtually, while others prefer in-person visits. Generation is also a significant expense and requires maintenance and replacement as upgrades are made or rules change.
To effectively implement generation (and the right kind of generation), whether it’s telemedicine, smart room features, remote monitoring, or even artificial intelligence, it’s vital to take inventory of the return on investment. Where will things go in 5, 10 or even 20 years?This type of research can identify the type of generational adoption that your organization (and your patients) will gain the most advantage from.
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