At a new 289-bed hospital in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., now under construction and scheduled to open next year, wireless technology is being implemented everywhere from nursing stations to patient rooms.
The goal is twofold: improve patient care and reduce cost.
Stephen Foster, director of ICT services with EllisDon Corp., the primary builder of the $250-million facility, says that administrators have done "a terrific job" to ensure they are protected both now and into the future.
"I would certainly single it out as a technology-savvy place that has put a lot of thought into wireless to maximize their efficiencies long-term and improve patient care," he says.
"There was a budget. It was not a blank cheque and it was not a large bucket of money, but it has been spent wisely."
Meanwhile, the Northern Light Health Region, which serves more than 100,000 people scattered across 20 communities in northern Alberta, recently invested in a new communications infrastructure jointly designed and installed by IBM Canada and Cisco Systems Canada that delivers enhanced video conferencing, data, voice and wireless services.
According to Foster, wireless technology is changing how health care facilities are built and how they operate. It has the ability to drive down capital costs, he says, but the bigger benefit will be in the "gain of operational efficiencies."
That was the thinking behind Telus health space, the nation's first consumer ehealth service introduced at the end of May.
The key to the service is Microsoft HealthVault, which the software firm describes as a personal health application platform that puts consumers in control of their health information.
While it is aimed at the patient, health care providers also gain, says Telus, by virtue of the fact they now have a new way to share information with individuals.
"It is absolutely a wonderful time for us to take full advantage of the Internet, smartphones and advanced electronic technologies not only to help us to manage our diseases and illnesses, but also to live healthier lives and achieve optimal wellness," says Dr. Kendall Ho, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia's faculty of medicine.
Brantz Myers, director of health care business development for Cisco Canada, says that in the space of one year, many health-care executives have gone from being unsure about wireless as a primarily delivery mode for network access to clinical and administrative applications to being convinced it's the route to go.
Helping the cause is a cascade of new devices such as telemetry systems, wireless IV pumps and RFID tags that can track patients and wait times.
"There are cardiac monitors now where you don't even put a visual monitor beside the patient, you put a telemetry pack on them, and it sends wireless telemetry vitals over a wireless network that has to be secure and reliable because the monitoring is done remotely," says Myers.
Hospitals traditionally are rich in data but a frequent problem is communications breakdowns between one department and another.
John Wilms, a client executive in IBM Canada's health-care practice, says the goal of wireless mobile applications is to make sure that information is available to people when they need it and wherever they may be within the institution.
"Having wireless, having data at your fingertips, having the ability to communicate with a health care team member instantly is making hospitals more efficient, saving steps, changing work flow and saving lives," he says.
"What that ties into is the whole health care spending crisis. Over 45 per cent of provincial budgets are currently spent on health care. They really have to wrestle this guerrilla to the ground."
IBM and Cisco say employing hand-held and wireless devices provide doctors, nurses and other staff with access to information, helping them reduce medical errors at virtually any point of care.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Paul Barker
Quelle/Source: Ottawa Citizen, 14.09.2010
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