Atlanta Arthur M. Blank Hospital Children’s Healthcare is scheduled to open this September. It is built from the ground up with the latest healthcare information technology.
This is one of the largest and most advanced children’s hospitals in the world. It costs more than 2 billion USD. It is 19 stories high and nearly 2 million square feet. It has 90 robots – with six separate elevators.
It features deep device integration, artificial intelligence, location awareness, video and patient engagement technology – all focused on helping clinicians save steps and make informed decisions. better determination while providing a great patient experience.
Jeremy T. Meller is chief information officer at Atlanta Arthur M. Blank Hospital Children’s Healthcare. We spoke with him to get the inside story on creating the practice’s health IT strategy and implementing the latest technologies.
Ask. What was the overall health IT strategy used to establish the hospital in the first place?
ONE. We are so proud of all the planning and work that went into Atlanta Arthur M. Blank Hospital Children’s Healthcare in September. The process of building the hospital’s overall vision has been started more than seven years ago. Children’s worked with the Patient and Parent Advisory Council to understand what our families thought was most important about a new hospital.
We received a lot of valuable and creative feedback that led to suggestions such as a second television in the room and washers and dryers on each floor. Our committees have worked to understand the themes in order to create the most healing environment with the best possible care for the children we treat.
We also work cross-functionally to learn about leading practices in hospital design, understand the pain points our staff are experiencing, and what we think technology and Innovation will move forward in the future. But things move quickly. When we started this process in 2017, we assumed that self-driving cars would need to be accommodated.
Meanwhile, we had no idea that a global pandemic was coming and that we would have to deal with workforce issues. People still confuse algorithmic bots with AI and no one talks about AI at all. We have adjusted our plans over the past few years to accommodate the new realities and needs we have learned.
Our technology strategies began to take shape when we organized large-scale workflow simulations as part of our facility design process. Children’s created “Cardboard City” by transforming a 100,000 square foot warehouse into one of the largest scale hospital models in the country. Using more than 12 miles of tape and 10,000 square feet of cardboard, our hospital planning and simulation team built models to test 3-D design plans and determine how the layout might affect to staff workflow, patient care and family experiences.
“We have long-term investments in predictive analytics but have recently been looking at how AI can be used in meaningful and safe ways.”
Jeremy T. Meller, Atlanta Arthur M. Blank Hospital Children’s Healthcare
Through this process, we identified space requirements that needed to be re-addressed in some areas, the plug placement might be wrong, or we needed technology to help solve the problem.
An example of this is the Arthur M. Blank Hospital facilities. At nearly two million square feet, it rivals or exceeds many professional football stadiums in size. This is partly because each patient room is spacious, with a separate area for parents. Parents will have their own desk, sofa bed and TV.
These amenities certainly improve the quality of experience, but they also bring technological impacts, such as increased network load. The physical size itself means that moving around will take longer.
An extra 10,000 steps can impact the time it takes for a nurse to get to a patient’s room, so we’ve struggled to find ways in which technology can support communication, reducing the steps (both physical and procedural) and improve the quality of the care we are providing.
Q. Are there any special IT considerations because this is a pediatric hospital?
ONE. Children’s health care brings more complexity in every aspect. The device must be sized appropriately for the anatomical stages of childhood development. Care processes are different and more complex.
Children respond differently to medical interventions, and most systems were not designed from the outset with pediatric medicine in mind. Electronic health records are more complex, and providing access to patient records is more involved because the legal guardianship relationship must be determined.
There are many practical reasons why pediatric hospitalization is resource-intensive, but this does not mean that finding experienced clinical staff and doctors is any easier. Our needs are deeper and we must do everything we can to support clinicians in providing the best care possible.
To help save on physical steps and reduce the time burden, we have integrated screens outside each patient room with halo lights that change color depending on who is in the room. This relies on staff wearing RTLS badges when the hospital is open and providing visual clues that can reduce steps.
Locations are updated on the status panel and clinicians can review who has been or is with the patient. This will help improve staff coordination and, in turn, patient care.
Q. You have 90 robots. Let’s talk about the place of robots in the hospital and what they will do.
ONE. We’re really excited about the opening of Arthur M. Blank Hospital with the world’s largest robotics fleet. We will have two types of robots, autonomous mobile robots and Robo. About a third will be patient-facing, helping deliver meals or medications and retrieving labs or other items that cannot pass through the tube system.
Our back hallway “carts” are designed with platforms that slide under specially designed carts for hauling heavy linen and trash. Arthur M. Blank Hospital has six elevators designed specifically for robots. The system will include advanced algorithms and camera technology to determine trash location and usage.
Logistics planning for the new hospital was also key for our team. Our smart supply chain management system uses RFID technology to better automate inventory and payment processes. Our pneumatic tube systems have traffic control monitoring functions, and our pressurized trash chute systems even have radiation monitoring functions.
Everything is connected. We have nearly 60 systems related to the facility and supply chain – most of them are systems we have at other facilities, but at our new hospital they are networked, automated automation and monitoring.
Ask. You told me that the hospital will integrate deep devices and artificial intelligence. Please explain.
ONE. Like many organizations, we have long-term investments in predictive analytics but have recently been looking at how to use synthetic AI in meaningful and safe ways. Everyone talks about how AI will change the world, how it will change healthcare. But for AI to be useful, it needs content, it needs data. For algorithms to predict decline to be most effective, timely physiological data is needed.
Many hospitals have IT systems and medical equipment but are not deeply integrated. A nurse would stand in front of the computer, look at the patient screen (another computer) and enter vitals hourly. This is an outdated model that needs to move to real-time.
We’re integrating virtually every type of device that can provide this data, bring it in analytics system and are currently developing 11 predictive models to support our clinical teams, helping them decide where to focus or make better, safer decisions.
The waveforms will be available to clinicians in real time on their mobile clinical smartphones, allowing them to better triage alarm responses, such as knowing when a lead has been disconnected. connect. The nurse call system is integrated into our RTLS so that the alarm is automatically silenced when a nurse enters the room.
Q. What types of patient engagement technologies do you have in place and what are the expected outcomes?
ONE. We know patients may prefer to be at home rather than in hospital and that’s why we have designed rooms that are spacious and designed to provide the best comfort and connectivity for the whole family. family.
We will have multiple screens in each room. We will have traditional patient education and entertainment screens, as well as a second TV for parents and a vertically mounted virtual whiteboard. The RTLS system will be integrated into the room and when a clinician enters, a pop-up will appear on the television and whiteboard indicating who has just entered.
The whiteboard will provide helpful information to patients and families, including daily schedules and a list of care team members. When a doctor or nurse enters the room, the screen changes, allowing the caregiver to obtain relevant information and radiology images to communicate with the patient.
A high-quality pan-tilt-zoom camera is also installed in each room and will allow caregivers, interpreters or even family members to dial into the room. It will go into private mode when not in use, and any calls will be accepted or rejected from the pillow speaker.
Ask. Ultimately, what are your goals as CIO of this new high-tech hospital?
ONE. The new Arthur M. Blank Hospital will be one of the most advanced facilities in the world when it opens in September. My goal is that we use technology to help clinicians provide The best possible care through smarter systems, saving steps through improved communication and intuitive processes supported by technology, while improving care and experience. experience through improved patient engagement.
Of course, we couldn’t do anything in IT without paying attention to cybersecurity, so that was an integral part of everything we did before opening the hospital. All new systems and capabilities have been carefully evaluated and implemented to provide the highest possible safety and security.
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