Paramus, N.J.-based Valley Health System’s investment in smart rooms at its new $868 million hospital has been “worth every penny,” its IT chief told Becker’s.
The 370-bed, 910,000-square-foot Valley Hospital opened last April in Paramus, with rooms outfitted with 75-inch “foot wall” smart TVs, temperature control, on-demand food service and AI for fall prevention. Because modern hospital standards call for more space, the smart technology has prevented the health system from having to hire more staff. The new hospital has also been experiencing high patient volumes and patient experience scores.
“Everything about this investment is paying off. I’m paying it back with no question,” said Eric Carey, vice president and CIO of Valley Health System. “The ROI is absolutely there.”
The rooms feature shade controls on the pillow speakers, temperature and light controls on the foot walls, and iPads for video conferencing. The TVs not only offer entertainment but also replace dry-erase boards, with up-to-date info from the Meditech Expanse EHR and staff names and pictures via real-time location system badges.
Digital door signs indicate allergies and fall risks, with real-time data from the EHR. Mr. Carey called it “data integration on steroids.”
“I’m talking about a nurse call system being integrated with all the building management systems, integrated with the electronic health record, integrated with the food and nutrition system, integrated with the education system, and on and on and on,” he said. “It’s a big lift. When you have a completely new building, it’s easier.”
Food can also be ordered on demand at any time. “Our food is now room service,” Mr. Carey said. “It’s like a hotel.” Speaking of, the new accouterments have been so lush Valley has had trouble moving patients out of the hospital.
The rooms also include separate spaces for family members with a futon and table and chargers so they can work remotely.
“That’s important from the engagement and experience perspective, because they’re caregivers, they’re going to help tuck you in, pull the blanket up, get you water,” Mr. Carey said. “All of that happiness for the family and guests translates into better experience and optimization for staff, less trips to the room.”
He explained how AI for fall prevention works: “A camera, microphone and speaker up on the foot wall looks at the patient, deidentifies the patient into a blur, turns their body into a stick figure, and it has the artificial intelligence know the precursor movement to starting to get out of bed, whether it’s your arm or your leg or a roll, and it sends an alert to all of the caregivers assigned to that patient on their smartphones.”
During the pilot phase, falls declined by 10-30%. “You can’t say no to that technology,” Mr. Carey said. “That’s a lot of falls you’re saving.”
The smart rooms are also “future-proof,” enabling them to seamlessly adopt new technological advancements, with three or four spare cables each, Mr. Carey said.
“Building the infrastructure, although somewhat boring to people, is critical to be able to act quickly and save money you can spend on new technology,” he said. “Because if I have to spend $800,000 every time to relocate a wire, that’s $800,000 less I have to buy a new clinical system or a new feature.”
That said, Valley Hospital plans to implement virtual nursing, ambient AI and remote patient monitoring features in the future.
Plus, with the way technology is evolving, what used to take years to advance now takes months: “If you take a year to do anything now, it’s already old-school stuff,” Mr. Carey said.
