Transformation via Technology: Run Until Apprehended…

9.15.2009  PANELISTS: Barbara Blakeney, RN MS, MGH Julian Goldman, MD, Partners HealthCare Ronald Newbower, PhD, CIMIT Sue Schade, BWH MODERATOR: Jeffrey B. Cooper, PhD, MGH

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Forum Summary

According to Leland Kaiser, “the hospital is a human invention and as such can be reinvented any time.”  On the other hand, hospitals are large institutions with entrenched traditions that often serve as barriers to change.  OhioHealth is a not-for profit, faith-based healthcare system serving patients in over forty counties in central Ohio, and it recently constructed a new facility called Dublin Methodist Hospital in order to demonstrate the feasibility of an all-digital hospital.  The success of this hospital illustrates the advantages of many new technologies that would have been difficult to implement in an older hospital. 

Dublin Methodist Hospital was built according to principles of evidence-based design, a process that involves making decisions based on empirical studies relating the layout of a facility to health outcomes.  Evidence-based design has been shown to reduce the incidence of hospital-acquired infections, falls, and medical errors.  Each room at Dublin Methodist Hospital was designed to minimize a patient’s risk of falling and to maximize his or her exposure to natural light and views of nature.  The building itself was designed to be quiet and to provide shared open spaces for doctors, nurses, patients, and families.  All the rooms at the hospital are either single rooms or family rooms with space for one patient and his or her overnight visitors.  The hospital is open to visitors 24 hours a day. 
           
The goal of the designers of Dublin Methodist Hospital was to create an ideal environment for patients, families, and staff.  The hospital emphasizes acuity-adaptive care, which means that a patient is rarely transferred from room to room even if his or her needs change.  The rationale that supports limiting patient transfers is the fact that patient transfers create opportunities for medical errors.  The hospital was also designed to be user-friendly for the staff, and it contains respite areas in which staff members can rest and relax while on duty. 
           
Dublin Methodist Hospital was also designed to incorporate many new technologies.  The hospital, for example, is almost all-digital.  Paperwork is only completed in rare emergencies.  Staff members normally communicate using wireless devices and a computer system featuring biometric identification.  The designers of the hospital worked with vendors in order to make sure that the devices used in the hospital are interoperable.  There is a data server in every patient room, and paper is not even used at staff meetings.  Real-time technology support is always available.

Dublin Methodist Hospital seems to be a success, and the leaders of the OhioHealth system hope to apply lessons learned from the project to other hospitals in their system.  The new hospital ranks among the top four percent of hospitals in terms of patient satisfaction, and associate satisfaction is also high.  The hospital has been operating for over a year, and there has only been one serious medical error.  The hospital reflects the philosophy of Clara Barton, who said, “I go for anything new that might improve the past.”                 

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