Southern's digital vision

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Picture: An artist’s impression of a new Dunedin Hospital

eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

The Digital Blueprint for Dunedin’s new hospital says it will be a, “digitally enabled facility and support new and emerging technologies that improve the patient and staff experience”. eHealthNews.nz reports.

The vision for Dunedin’s new digital hospital is certainly ambitious, says Southern DHB executive director people, culture & technology Mike Collins.

He acknowledges that with more innovation comes more risk and more cost, but says the Strategic Partnership Group (appointed by the Minister of Health to manage capital projects and programmes) has the appetite for it and the region is ready for change.

The time for transformation

Across New Zealand, the arrival of Covid-19 has already greatly accelerated the pace of digital transformation within the health system.

The Southern region has seen wide adoption of telehealth for virtual appointments and the crisis has highlighted the importance of technology to the functioning of the health system, Collins says.

Southern DHB has developed a Digital Blueprint for its new hospital, based on research around what digitally smart hospitals internationally have done and lessons learned, including hospitals in New Zealand and Australia.

The DHB plans on creating a physical space called MyLab to showcase some of the elements from its blueprint and allow staff and the public to “help co-design what the future will look like”.

“From a change management perspective, MyLab will help bring people on the journey as we listen to their needs and introduce new solutions,” he explains.

Patient stories from across the health system will be used to show how digital tools will change models of care in the future and the impact of these changes on the way people work.

Collins says My Lab has garnered interest from industry, MBIE, tertiary providers and the Centre of Digital Excellence (CODE) initiative which is focusing on the gamification of healthcare.

MyLab will also work with partners to enable research into the impact new healthcare technologies have in terms of the change in people’s behaviours and improved health outcomes across the health system.

A digital vision

The Digital Blueprint envisions the use of autonomous guided vehicles, a pharmacy robot and digital operating rooms.

Patient and staff location details, as well as assets, will be tracked across the hospital site using a combination of Bluetooth and RFID wrist bands.

Patients will be able to “check-in” via kiosks or on a new Dunedin Hospital app, which will act as a “digital wayfinder”, providing information about car parking and directions once on site.

Telehealth video conferencing solution will be delivered via custom designed telehealth rooms as well as on any device throughout the facility including PCs, tablets and the Patient Engagement System (PES).

A “cockpit-style PES” will be deployed throughout the hospital and provide patient and staff details, on demand meal ordering, video conference with internal and external clinicians and staff access to the digital health record.

Southern will continue to develop its digital health record system based on a “best of breed” approach and will deploy the South Island Patient Information Care System.

Some of the new clinical systems available at the hospital will be an anaesthetic information system and intensive care unit system.

Further developments include a temporary scanning solution, task management and a data repository.

“From opening the new Dunedin hospital will consolidate all raw data collected across the integrated ICT environment into a “data lake”,” the blueprint says.

Data outputs will be used to inform real-time clinical decision making, patient support workflow and trend historical output and performance.

A large number of biomedical devices will transmit biomedical data to various clinical systems and, where possible, also transmit raw data to a central biomed information broker for collection and addition to the digital health record, it explains.

Building a business case

Collins says the blueprint is centred around 18 big business cases based on workstreams.

The board has already approved seed funding of $1.2 million to engage an early works team that formed in February. It is working to define the scope of each of the 18 workstreams and determine what some of the solutions will look like, how they will integrate and some indicative costing.

If approved, work will be funded via phased capital investment based on the programme of work, he tells eHealthNews.nz.

While the total cost will certainly be a “big number”, the benefits will be in productivity, improvements in patient flow and the valuing of patient and staff time. The DHB also expects return on investment from consolidating its systems and changes in workflow.

Investment is also about building resilience and the ability to grow services, he says.

While the Ministry has been involved in discussions to date, the DHB is yet to know if the government will fully fund its digital ambitions.

However, with appropriate funding Collins is confident of success as people are already invested and enthusiastic for change

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to create great experiences for our patients, staff and the community,” he says.

Collins will be talking further about Southern’s Digital Blueprint at a free eHealthNews Live webinar on 28 May 2020 Digital Hospitals: stories from the South Island.

If you would like to provide feedback on the above feature article, please contact the editor Rebecca McBeth.

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