Author: Whitney J. Palmer
Date published: August 20, 2024
The hospital of the future can offer more than the latest diagnostic breakthroughs and treatment options. It's a connected hospital that links providers throughout the facility, leveraging near real-time patient information, location data, asset tracking and immersive technologies to provide the highest level of care possible.
To reach this point, facilities must invest in their hospital network infrastructure. With a more modern design and construction, these connected hospitals can offer better patient care while also improving provider satisfaction and driving down costs. Ultimately, delivering many of these capabilities in a more near real-time, data-driven way can be best supported by a private 5G network– one that can offer the speed and security needed for optimal healthcare delivery.
Designing an efficient connected hospital takes planning–one that is built with short- and long-term innovation priorities in mind. A comprehensive connectivity plan and infrastructure transformation strategy will be constructed to support the deployment of applications and technologies that drive operational efficiency and data-enabled care, such as:
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are being leveraged to deliver analytics across patient care to enable everything from decision support to resource management to intelligent diagnostics.
AI algorithms can be programmed to monitor a hospital's physical assets, such as surgical supplies or medication inventory. These tools can provide near real-time alerts if items are missing or need to be replenished. This type of AI can also streamline patient workflow. For example, by tracking the number of beds in use, an algorithm can notify nurses of available beds. This can help move patients through the admission process, reduce wait times and accelerate care delivery.
Patients and providers can also benefit from AI-enabled video monitoring of the surgical field to support post-operative feedback and insights to the surgeon. Additionally, AI-enabled intelligent detection used during procedures, such as colonoscopies, can offer near real-time identification of abnormalities that are undetectable to the naked eye or require further inspection. These discoveries can allow for less-invasive therapy options, limiting patient expenses and hospital resource allocation. For example, a pre-cancer skin lesion might be picked up by an AI-based skin cancer diagnostic tool which could simply be removed, potentially eliminating the need to treat a more advanced disease with chemotherapy or other invasive treatment options.
As healthcare systems consolidate and grow, navigating buildings and campuses becomes more complicated. Patients can get lost and waste valuable time trying to find the correct office or lab, potentially leading to missed appointments that cause delays in care.
Wayfinding technologies can help reduce this problem. In most cases, these tools are smartphone-based applications that use managed software defined wireless LAN (SD WLAN) and micro-location services to provide step-by-step navigation through a hospital. Additionally, this technology can also be designed to support proximity-based check-ins and include access to physician directories, electronic medical records and information about hospital amenities.
In the hospital of the future, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) can create immersive experiences that contribute to both better physician training and patient outcomes. For example, these technologies can project medical data onto a patient in an operating suite in near real time. By seeing pathologies, such as a brain tumor, surgeons can map out faster, more accurate strategies.
Outfitting and connecting smart rooms to the hospital's intelligent network can support any telehealth needs that may arise. By enabling bedside video conferencing, a connected hospital can give patients and referring physicians easier access to specialists located throughout the facility or at another institution. This connectivity can also make it easier for family members to participate in a patient's care.
Think of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) as the healthcare version of the Internet of Things. This market, which is set to balloon to $254 million by 2026, focuses on connected devices devoted to medical care. They're designed to provide more detail that can augment patient care, saving time and money.
For example, IoMT can turn the bracelet a patient receives upon admission into a smartwatch. It could track vital signs and patient location, monitor falls or even conduct automatic diagnostic tests, such as echocardiograms. Or IoMT could be used to create camera-equipped pills that can perform traditional procedures, such as endoscopies, in a minimally invasive way and then share results with providers. When powered by 5G, these technologies can capture, store and transmit this data and high-resolution imaging in near real time using minimal resources.
Robots are long-standing contributors to healthcare. For nearly 40 years, they've been integral to hospital activities, and now their roles are expanding in hospitals of the future.
These machines are fundamental to complex and minimally invasive surgeries, and new-generation robots are becoming more autonomous. Additionally, collaborative robots that work seamlessly alongside medical staff —or cobots—can automatically link valuable data, such as medication use and vital signs, to a patient's electronic health record.
In the future, healthcare robotics will likely focus on patient comfort and convenience. For example, self-guided robots that can conduct colonoscopies could decrease a specialist's workload while reducing the need for sedation. According to one Deloitte study, there's also a push to leverage robots and IoMT devices as early as 2025 to deliver the majority of medical services in smart hospitals.1
All these components are vital to a connected hospital's smooth day-to-day operations. But, to work correctly, they must be powered by the right network that allows for lower latency, higher speed, larger bandwidth and more powerful security. Next-generation wireless networking technologies, such as Wi-Fi 6 and 5G cellular, could be the solution to this growing need.
Facilities should consider a connectivity plan that includes private 5G and Wi-Fi 6. Like 5G, Wi-Fi 6 offers stronger signal performance by taking advantage of a technology called beamforming, as well as better throughput and the potential to roam more easily from one hotspot to another. Wi-Fi 6 can triple the amount of maximum data throughput across multiple channels. However, 5G can provide much higher speeds and lower latency than previous cellular versions, which will not only help with medical and mobile device use in hospitals but also with telemedicine and remote care. Additionally, based on this HIMSS survey, hospital executives have a growing concern about the security of WiFi6, and as there is an estimated 68% of critical applications operating wirelessly, private 5G provides more security, control, and agility. Private 5G can help reduce interference and can provide greater privacy and security for your operations with your own dedicated network.
Mobile-edge computing (MEC) is also an important part of modernizing your network. Enabling the growing number of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), 5G plus MEC can help enable augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR), machine learning, remote patient monitoring (RPM), and more. For example, innovative medical solutions utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) can help a facility process the massive amount of data coming from each sensor, responding with near real time in a 5G environment.
Designing and constructing the hospital of the future isn't an overnight process. And there's no "one-size-fits-all" approach to creating an effective connected hospital. But, by examining their current capabilities and assessing their future connectivity needs, facilities can design a hospital network infrastructure that can support all their patient and provider needs.
While prioritization will depend on each hospital's specific circumstances, there are some general factors to consider.
As healthcare becomes increasingly digitized, your network will become critical to ensuring your hospital can continue to adapt and evolve to best care for your patients. A private 5G network can give your hospital wireless, in-building connectivity to support rapid innovation, real-time care decisions and operational efficiency.
According to a recent Deloitte survey of healthcare experts, hospitals can benefit from the transformative nature of AI. These tools augment patient monitoring and care delivery while saving patient data directly to the electronic health record. With AI in place, hospitals can better implement AR/VR digital realities that support advanced care services and medical training. AI and automation can also help with resource allocation by improving efficiencies and freeing up staff from tasks not directly related to patient care. For example, according to the nonprofit Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare, Inc. (CAQH), “By transitioning to fully electronic transactions, the industry can save nearly $25 billion, or 41 percent of the current annual spend, $60 billion. The industry has already avoided spending $187 billion annually by automating transactions.2"
Patients consistently search for better healthcare experiences. In fact, more than 60% report having access to a better patient portal would prompt them to switch healthcare providers. Consequently, hospitals must promote new technologies for patient convenience. In-room telehealth, wayfinding tools and push notifications support the streamlined experiences patients expect from all service providers.
Each hospital of the future will be tailored to its particular needs and situation. To do this requires Enterprise Intelligence so the right systems and solutions are put in place to make the most of innovation, adapt in near real time and respond with agility.
Learn more about how Verizon's solutions can deliver the Enterprise Intelligence needed to power the connected healthcare of the future.
The author of this content is a paid contributor for Verizon.
1 Deloitte, Predicting the Future of Healthcare and Life Sciences in 2025, page 3.
2 CAQH, 2022 CAQH Index, Key Findings, page 7.