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There are always trailblazers implementing the latest technology, experimenting with management styles and putting the latest best practice in place. There are too many leading lights to name here, but HealthManagement. org has created a round up of facilities and individuals in healthcare - leaders who have caught our attention because of their efforts in taking steps toward the ultimate goal – better patient outcomes without compromising the bottom line. Could these examples point toward where healthcare management and best practice are heading?
Digital Hospital
Opening its doors in autumn last year, Humber Valley Hospital (HRH ) in Toronto, a 26-acre site, provides a broad range of healthcare services. The HRH 656 bed facility boasts a pneumatic tube delivery network, automated supply delivery systems incorporating robots and a pneumatic transport system for soiled laundry and linen that connects to external haulage units. The aim of these features was to save 164 kilometres per day of walking time and a potential 2 million dollars in annual operating costs.
HRH also gets points for focusing on energy consumption – one of a hospital's biggest expenses. The hospital was designed with focus on the implementation of energy recovery measures and efficiency in operating protocols while not compromising on delivery of 100 percent fresh air to all hospital areas (HO K 2015).
Cutting Edge Operating Rooms at U-M
In June, the University of Michigan (U-M) Health System opened four new state-of-the-art operating rooms (OR s) at University Hospital. The new surgical premises implement technology that includes surgical positioning systems, new microscopes, 3D image-guided navigation systems and robotics. The new OR s are primarily being utilised by the neurosurgery and Orthopaedic surgery departments.
Particularly exciting, two of the new OR s will allow neurosurgery to expand their services in complex cranial and spinal surgery. The other two will provide a more efficient layout for robotic-assisted joint replacement surgery and 3-D image guided spinal surgery.
An encouraging example of cross-collaborative teamwork, the designs of the rooms were a result of ongoing employee feedback (U-M 2016).
Population Health Management
Population health is one of the current buzzwords in healthcare but most providers are playing a waiting game on implementation. But with the risk for population of patients moving over to a provider, health systems need to have good knowledge about the patients they are caring for.
How do you manage when you are treating a patient outside your health system? Anne Arundel Medical Centre in Annapolis, Maryland, combines use of a state-designated health information exchange and an EHR system vendor's data-exchange platform to move patient information across health systems. It then imports it into its own EHRs.
They’ve partnered with a local hospital in another health system and set standards on the transmission of critical clinical data allowing them to display real time care alerts between hospitals. The facility was one of this year’s Hospital and Health Networks Healthcare’s Most Wired winners for its innovation (H&HN 2016).
Robotic “Flight Simulator” Surgery
Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RP CI) in Buffalo is changing robotic techniques surgical training by moving from procedure practice in a live to simulated environment. A collaboration with Buffalo’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and RP CI’s Centre for Robotic Surgery they are introducing RoSS (Robotic Surgery Simulator) into training.
RoSS is often compared to flight simulation for pilots. Debuting in 2010, this gives training and professional surgeons the chance, through real-world views of actual robotic technique surgeries to make mistakes in a simulated rather than a real environment. Honing skills in a simulated procedure increases the chances of succeeding when in the real world and when a life is at stake on the operating table.