Children's Hospitals Today - Fall 2023 - 30

FEATURE / TECHNOLOGY
High-tech hospital in a tech mecca
FOR MYRA DAVIS, it was a match made in heaven.
The plans to open a 365,000-square-foot,
52-bed hospital in the burgeoning technology
hub of Austin, Texas, provided the perfect opportunity
to build a smart facility.
" We know the community is really tech
friendly and tech savvy, " says Davis, senior
vice president and chief information and innovation
officer at Texas Children's Hospital in
Houston. " With that as a backdrop, we wanted
to advance the technology with the opportunities
we would have there. "
For the new hospital
be used effectively and
affordably?' "
Myra Davis, senior vice
president and chief
information and innovation
officer, Texas Children's
in the " new Silicon
Valley, " Davis and her team designed a stateof-the-art
technology experience for patients,
families, employees and providers by integrating
a mix of emerging technologies and new
applications of existing tech. When the hospital
opens its doors in February 2024, it will
include these technological features:
Asset optimization
Chips embedded in medical equipment and
devices will automate asset management.
Currently, clinicians and engineering teams
must manually locate available assets, such
as smart pumps or monitors. Not only will the
chips provide access to real-time equipment
location data, they'll also send alerts when a
machine requires service. Additionally, Texas
Children's plans to leverage predictive analysis
of the usage data collected by each asset
to ensure equipment is proactively placed in
areas where staff use it most frequently.
Simulation center
Working closely with clinicians, the Texas
Children's technology team will use its SIMLab
Innovation Center to simulate the integration
of new technologies like virtual reality and
artificial intelligence into its care model. " This
prevents the deployment of technology for
technology's sake, " Davis says. " It's an opportunity
to integrate it and learn while maintaining
the focus on why we're all here: the patient. "
Wi-Fi 6E architecture
According to Davis, it's " the rug that supports
30
CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS TODAY Fall 2023
" You must know your
system, where your
bottlenecks are and what
problem you're trying to
solve. You will need to
be flexible. Some of it is
embarking on a project and
then finding other things,
shifting a little and starting
down that new path. You'll
see things that you may
not have expected to see,
but that's okay. That's part
of making systems better.
And that's part of making
health care better for
everybody down the road. "
Jennifer Watts, M.D.,
MPH, emergency medicine
physician and chief patient
progression medical
officer, Children's Mercy
" When working with a
vendor, it's important
to understand their
technology roadmap
and where they're going
with a product. Some
vendors are startups,
and a large percentage of
those startups get sold
to other companies. Are
you comfortable dealing
with the uncertainty that
a company you really like
and have worked with for
years might get sold? It
happens a lot in health
care, and in some cases,
we can't avoid it. But being
aware is important. "
Denise Zabawski,
vice president and
chief information
officer, Nationwide
Children's Hospital
all the other digital experiences " at the Austin
hospital. Texas Children's is constructing an
extensive Wi-Fi 6E network throughout the
campus, extending coverage from the parking
lot to every corner of the hospital building, ensuring
hospital visitors and staff can communicate
with the outside world anytime, anywhere.
Wi-Fi 6E is the fastest Wi-Fi currently available
and reliably supports more users at once, including
in dense and congested environments.
Digital experience
Each audio-visual screen in the hospital will be
supported by a next-generation, context-aware
digital delivery network. This portal pulls together
all data streams, including TV, movies,
patient EMR, dining services and educational
material, into one user interface. Although each
patient room is individually controlled, hospital
staff can display specific channels on groups of
monitors, such as The Weather Channel on all
hallway monitors during a weather event or an
important safety message on all monitors.
Smart alarms
Traditional patient alarm systems elicit numerous
false alarms by examining vital signs
only in isolation. A smart alarm system uses
an algorithm to account for multiple vital
signs in monitoring patients and alerting care
providers. The multi-level alarm more effectively
conveys the clinical severity of the patient
based on the parameters established by
the care team, resulting in fewer false alarms.
Critical care transport
Texas Children's ambulances will be equipped
with dual-cell antennas to ensure connectivity
along with secure VPN that includes the
hospital's EMR and video connection with
physicians on site. The video hookup allows
doctors to help the paramedic team care for
the patient before they arrive at the hospital.
Brian Busenbark is a writer and content
strategist in Omaha, Neb.
Send questions or comments to
magazine@childrenshospitals.org.
Children's Hospitals Today - Fall 2023

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