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Changing Trends in Hospital Infrastructure

The only thing constant in life is change and that is what is greatly needed most of the time. Healthcare too needs changes in hospital infrastructure planning to evolve for a better future. This change has to come from the basic level and that is why it has to start with hospital infrastructure planning.

Hospitals have come to realize that patient satisfaction is the key to their success and growth. The role of hospital infrastructure importance in achieving patient satisfaction is monumental. This is why hospitals are making efforts to adopt changing trends in their infrastructure efficiently by seeking the guidance of an expert healthcare consulting firm.

Emerging trends in hospital infrastructure planning

Today the future of healthcare lies in ability and agility in adopting the technology. With patient satisfaction becoming the core focus, hospitals have to be well-equipped with the latest technology and skill-set to increase their quality of patient care. Major changes are portended in hospital infrastructure planning  with the advent of the latest technology. Some of these are described below.

  1. Hospitals will adopt more technology to have a connected infrastructure.

Patients are favoring the use of telemedicine and prefer virtual visits for their regular check-ups. To facilitate this, hospitals must have a more connected infrastructure. Here are some of the technologies that hospitals can adopt to make their infrastructure more connected.

  • Hospitals use augmented reality (AR) to integrate images into the patient’s environment.
  • Virtual Reality (VR) is being used to simulate clinical situations in pain management, neuro-rehabilitation, etc.
  • Artificial intelligence(AI) is being used for predicting the outcome of clinical situations and helps in improving the quality of treatment.
  • Robotics has been used in surgery via telemedicine.
  • Wearables like Google glasses are used to monitor patient’s health parameters 24×7 remotely.
  • 3D printing has enabled the easy fabrication of prostheses and implants.

Technology has enhanced the hospital infrastructure importance and enabled it to be more remotely connected with physicians and specialists by the above means.

  1. Hospital infrastructure will become decentralized

With technology entering the field of healthcarethere is no longer a need for the patient to remain hospitalized for long periods. Non-invasive treatment procedures are now being done at outpatient clinics, reducing the inpatient stay at hospitals. This has spurred the growth of small health care units, ambulatory services, and emergency-care clinics. Hospital infrastructure has thus become more decentralized.

The vertical integration of big hospitals with small healthcare clinics by merger or acquisition has also lead to their diversification and decentralization. Hospitals have now started setting up a chain of their individual healthcare units in the hope of offering more specialized clinical care.

  1. Hospital infrastructure will look at alternative sources

With energy costs hitting the roof and with eco-consciousness being the watch-word, Hospital infrastructure will look at alternative sources of energy and materials. Hospitals will look at renewable energy sources like solar, biogas, etc. Even recyclable items will be preferred for use in hospital raw materials. Hospital infrastructure planning will focus on green building to cut down on both their energy costs and footprint.

  1. Hospital infrastructure will switch to Cloud

Healthcare is essentially a data-driven industry and the voluminous patient data becomes too much for hospitals to manage. Therefore, hospitals will tie-up with third-party vendors to store and manage patient or hospital data on the Cloud. Private Cloud vendors can meet the security and privacy standards demanded by the hospital. This will greatly reduce overheads and step up the productivity of the hospital.

  1. Hospitals will become wholly patient-centric

In today’s competitive world, patient satisfaction has become the cutting edge for hospitals to succeed. Hospitals will focus on offering personalized care for patients while trying to adhere to hospital NABH standards. Hospitals will offer their own mobile apps to facilitate online scheduling and follow-up of appointments. Right from the home delivery of medicines to home doctor visits, the patient will be accorded the maximum personalized care by hospitals.

Hospital infrastructure planning has to be revamped to incorporate recent trends in technology to ensure the sustenance and profitability of hospitals. A good healthcare consulting firm knows the hospital infrastructure importance  and will definitely suggest means to improve it.