Healthcare Solutions with an Innovation Zone

Technology was supposed to make health care easier for everyone. What happened? Better yet, what can be done to turn the corner so that technology really does make health care easier? Simple: the healthcare innovation zone.

What is a healthcare innovation zone? Why is it imperative to have in the healthcare arena? To answer those questions you really need to understand how the basics of healthcare works. When thinking of a healthcare team we may think of the people on the frontlines the physician, nurse, and/or the patient care tech. It makes sense, right? I mean, these are the people you see at the bedside on a daily basis. It is all about perspective and what you define as the frontlines. Every person in health care plays an equal role in patient care. Everyone --- from food services to your information technology department --- plays an equal role in patient care and all positions are equally as important. Each worker should feel like they are on the frontlines. We focus a lot on best practice in the clinicial setting. When it comes to technology what is truly best practice? Where is the evidence? Those are hard questions to answer. The reason these are hard questions to answer is because there are few established, tested best practices when it comes to technology in the healthcare arena. This is why a healthcare innovation zone is so vital in improving patient care. Imagine a healthcare world where the patient knows what is going on. Imagine a healthcare world where the patient and family is part of the healthcare team. That’s huge!!! The patient is involved and has more control over their care.

So the simple answer to what a healthcare innovation zone is that it is a safe place to see what technology can do to improve patient care and make the life of the caregivers easier. This is a place to be innovative with technology and think outside the box. The rules of healthcare have changed. Technology was supposed to make health care easier for everyone, but time and time again we find that it is more of a hindrance than a benefit. This has nothing to do with lack of trying to make it work. It is quite opposite actually, we have tried too hard to make simple technology fit our needs. The goal of a healthcare innovation zone is to make technology work for the patient and caregiver. Charting systems are necessary for multiple reasons, but beyond that there are many technologies that can make life in healthcare much more easier. With a healthcare innovation zone we can make this happen. The rules of healthcare are changing on a daily basis. The one rule that hasn’t changed is that the patient should always come first -- with new technology we can make it better for patients. The technology must be simple but solve so many problems that we were not able to solve before. Technology should never take the place of face to face conversation, a caring touch, or the basic care of a patient. Rather, technology should give back time to the caregiver to make those connections with patients. What would you like technology do for you in healthcare? When thinking what we can do with technology the possibilities are endless.