TECHNOLOGY ARTICLES

Implementing a centralised Computer-Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) system to manage ongoing workflow and maintenance can make healthcare estates more efficient, while also ensuring that ‘nothing falls through the cracks with regards to compliance’. So says Nigel Robinson, General manager of international facilities management software provider, Service Works Global, who explains how to implement a digital strategy and the resulting benefits, with examples from work carried out with the Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Matt Jeffreys, Commercial director of Healthcare at Wandsworth Group, discusses some of the key benefits of digital technology in improving task management in hospitals and other healthcare facilities – in areas ranging from catering and cleaning to portering and bed management.

In the complex landscape of healthcare administration, one major challenge NHS Trusts face is gathering data for the annual Estates Returns Information Collection (ERIC) report – especially as analysing data from the various departments and units becomes key to meeting looming zero carbon goals. Highlighting the hurdles that NHS Trusts encounter in ERIC reporting and related sustainability endeavours, Nicholas Hughes, senior manager of Healthcare at MRI Software, examines technology’s ‘pivotal role’ in overcoming these challenges

Deteriorating infrastructure, an ageing and growing patient population, and budgetary constraints, have resulted in hospitals facing significant operational challenges. Digitalisation offers healthcare facilities an unprecedented opportunity to do more with less, as Steve Jamieson, Healthcare Sector lead at Siemens Smart Infrastructure, explains.

Kevin Brown, managing director at BlueSky Wireless, and ICON’s Richard Salvage, highlight ‘the potentially catastrophic consequences’ of unattended alarms in healthcare. Here they explore why messaging, automation, and monitoring are crucial factors in mitigating risk.

Research indicates NHS EFM staff spend an average of 11 hours each week navigating disparate information sources for answers to common challenges. Addressing this inefficiency, a team from the University of Cambridge, supported by IHEEM, has developed an AI-driven platform ‘to provide instant, evidence-based answers to technical queries’. Carl-Magnus von Behr, Director of innex.ai, unveiled the system at the recent IHEEM Wales Regional Conference at the ICC Wales. Here he, CTO and co-founder of innex.ai, Dr Jan Blümel, and final-year medical student and researcher at the University of Southampton, Alan Saji, report.

Charlie Hinchey, Intelligent Buildings Solution consultant for healthcare at Trend Control Systems, explains how Milton Keynes University Hospital is working with Trend Controls, AES, and Haltian, to understand the benefits of deploying one of the first digital twin systems in an NHS healthcare setting.

George Pritchard, Technical director at Scenariio, a Derby-based smart buildings and IT specialist, discusses the company’s work to install LED lights, environmental sensors, and an emergency lighting system, at The Saplings, a new children’s bereavement counselling centre at Treetops Hospice in Risley, Derbyshire. The ‘human-centric’ lights adjust their colour temperature throughout the day, replicating the changing white tones of daylight – from a blue-white in the mid-morning/early afternoon, to warmer yellow-white in the late afternoon/evening, complementing both the young occupants’ own inbuilt circadian rhythms, and their activities within the centre, by changing the colour temperature to match whatever they are doing.

Callum Bartholomew, Operations Manager – Health Technology Integrations, at not-for-profit private health service provider, Cabrini Health Melbourne in Australia, discusses some of the major cybersecurity risks facing hospitals and other healthcare facilities, and outlines the company’s own approach to minimising the risk of so-called ‘cyberattacks’. He also suggests some of the key steps that other healthcare organisations can take to maintain the integrity and security of their own connected assets.

Maria Julia Souto of AFS Arquitectos in Buenos Aires, Argentina, discusses the challenges of integrating sophisticated information management technology in prefabricated modular operating theatres at the city’s Hospital Alemán.