How to build a wired hospital

By Patty Enrado, Editor

CHICAGO — Hospital systems in the early stages of health IT implementations and even those in progress will find value in the Northwestern Memorial’s Prentice Women’s Hospital education sessions. Prentice Women’s Hospital, which is 100 percent digital, is a realization of Northwestern Memorial’s “vision of technology,” said Joel Splan, director of technology and service management.

In “Realizing the Vision of a New Women’s Hospital through Technology Innovation,” on Monday, April 6, at 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM, Tim Zoph, CIO and vice president of Information Services, presents an overview of how Northwestern Memorial created a framework for how to design and build a new building embedded with technology that matters to the organization and continues to provide value through the years.

The next two sessions, which run concurrently from 3:15 PM – 4:15 PM, take a more detailed look at the project. In “Patient-Centered Technologies and Integration with Clinical Workflow,” Allison Montwill, manager of Patient Management Systems, and Sheila O’Brien, manager of Clinical Applications, examine what technology should be implemented – technology that is patient centered and integrated with physician workflow.

The second session, “Technology Planning & Commissioning – Are Your Systems Ready?” touts how preparing for technology will enable hospitals to be “battleship ready on Day 1,” said Splan. Northwestern Memorial moved 250 patients, including neonatal patients, from its old building to the new building in under six hours with technology up and running. Education session presenters Dan Curran, manager of Technology, and Dwayne Moehl, project director of Networking/Technology, discuss the strategies that Northwestern Memorial developed for various tests, including workflow and stress, which resulted in the seamless patient care that followed the move.

Northwestern Memorial began initial plans in 2001 and went live in October 2007. “If you’re going to do this well, you have to start early,” Splan said.
To ensure success, Splan recommends:

• Align the organization to the chosen technology and get commitment to the technology budget.
• If you choose innovative technology, make it centered on patient and caregiver satisfaction.
• Apply good, up-to-date practices to ensure that the technology works.
• Focus on safe activation and execution on Day 1.
• Expect some issues to arise during commissioning, so prepare for contingencies.

Splan is seeing a surge in new hospital building not only in the Chicago area but nationwide. No matter where a hospital system is in the process, these sessions will be instructional for those hospital executives, he said.

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