Question

The Hospital of the Future TECHNOLOGY OF ALL KINDS IS TRANSFORMING HOW MEDICAL SYSTEMS WORK rates, and to reduce patient stress, encouraging healing. Ironically, one of the most anticipated developments is that technology will allow hospitals to do a better job of keeping people out of them. "By 2015, home will be the hub of care," prediets Naomi Fried, vice president of the in- novation and advanced technology group at Kaiser Per- manente's Sidney R. Garfield Health Care Innovation Cen- ter in San Leandro, Calif. Five years ago, when Kevin Reynolds of Corona, Calif., developed congestive heart fail- ure (the No. 1 reason for hospitalization and readmission), he at first was in and out of the ER or urgent care center nearly every month, plagued by shortness of breath and dizziness. Now, doctors at Kaiser Permanente Riverside Medical Center can check his vital signs with the aid of a device the size of a clock radio connected to a scale and other By Michelle Andrews atherine Thomas doesn't remember much about the 19 days she spent in the intensive care unit at Methodist Hospital in Houston. Recovering from emergeney surgery to re- move part of her colon, Thomas, 63, drifted in and out of consciousness. But one vision stands out: the 5-foot robot that stopped in for a visit. "I thought it was something from outer space," she recalls. Piloted remotely by her doctor from a com- mand center on another floor, her alien-which looked like an oversize carpet cleaner with a computer monitor stuck on top-allowed her medical team to do their rounds, "secing" how she was doing and "reading" her vital signs, without unsettling her or the other extremely ill patients in monitoring equipment in his home. He weighs himself each morning and checks his heart rate, blood pressure, and blood oxygen levels; the data are sent in automatically. intensive care. Robots that glide through hos- pital halls may offer the most visually arresting example of the future of patient care. But they're just one of many dramatic ad- vances changing how hospitals function. Radio-frequency ID tags that track every doctor, nurse, and piece of equipment in the hospital in real time, for ex- ample, can enable a faster emer- gency response. "Smart" beds that automatically transmit patients' breathing and heart rates to their charts can alert nurses to developing prob- lems more quickly. One day in the not-too-distant future, any doctor in the country may have access to the complete medical history of an unconscious trauma patient-per- haps through an identifier implanted under the skin. Ac- cording to industry analyst Datamonitor, spending on telemedicine, which now entails everything from remote- ly monitoring patients to analyzing medical images from afar and someday could even inelude long-distance surgery, will reach $2.4 billion this year and nearly triple to $6.1 billion by 2012. The investment hospitals are making in change has ba- sically two goals: to improve clinical care and slash error If Reynolds's weight is up, indicating he's retaining fluids, he'll get a call from a nurse sug- gesting a diuretic. Once, when his blood pressure dropped too low, the nurse called him to the hos- pital immediately, but overall, Reynolds's time at the medical center is way down. "It's helped me with discipline and with taking care of myself," he says. Remote diagnosis. In rural areas, where specialist cov- erage is sparse, telemedicine's contribution grows ever more sophisticated. Take ultra-time-sensitive stroke man- agement, for example. In Michigan, 31 hospitals in far- flung locations now use robots identical to the one in Houston to allow a remote specialist to rapidly diagnose stroke and determine, before a patient's very narrow win- dow of opportunity closes, whether he or she is a good can- didate for tPA, a drug that dissolves clots. A neurosurgeon at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital in Pontiac can ob- serve and talk to patients using the robot's video camera, as well as review the CT scan and other lab results. "After one year, 18 hospitals had administered the drug tPA that Doctors at Methodist Hospital in Houston conduct morning rounds remotely with input from their robot (left). 69 U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT • www.USNEWS.COM • AUGUST 2009

please Identify the key points and main thesis of the article

2. Describe the skills you will need to develop to manage the hospital of the future.

use critical analysis doing these questions

Suggestion for writing assignmemnt make believe the reader has never read the article -what are the key points you would want the reader to know in order to understand the hospital of the future. In addition, managers, executives do not have time to read--so again what key points do you need to identify so that the reader very quickly has an understanding of the article.

Reference the article using examples even direct quotes to expand and substantiate the discussion.

Answer 1

#.The key points of the article are :-

- redefined care delivery

- digital patient experience

- enhanced talent development

- operational efficiencies through technology

- healing and we'll being designs

Hospitals that integrate digital solutions into broader organizational capabilities can improve the potential for long-term integration success. The core elements of digitally embedded future of hospital are:

Create a culture for digital transformation. It is essential that senior management understands the importance of a digital future and drives support for its implementation at all organizational levels.

Consider technology that communicates. Digital implementation is complex. Connecting disparate applications, devices, and technologies—all highly interdependent—and making certain that they talk to each other can be critical to a successful digital implementation. Make needed investments manageable.

Consider subscribing to certain technologies and services to help avoid significant upfront capital investment

Play the long game. Since digital technologies are ever-evolving, flexibility and scalability during implementation can be critical. The planning team should confirm that project scope includes adding, modifying, or replacing technology at lower costs.

Remember, data are core. While the requirements of data interoperability, scalability, productivity, and flexibility are important, they should be built upon a solid foundation of capturing, storing, securing, and analyzing data. Organizations should create a strong, system-wide data infrastructure.

Preparefor Talent 2.0. As hospitals invest in exponential technologies, they should provide employees ample opportunities to develop corresponding digital skills. An augmented workforce and use of new technologies requires current staff to learn new skills to manage and work alongside the robots and AI processes.

Maintaincyber security. With the proliferation of digital technologies, cyber breaches can be a major threat to hospitals of the future. Executives should understand that cyber security is the other half of digital implementation and allocate resources appropriately.