In an edited version of a paper presented at the IHEA (Institute of Hospital Engineering Australia) 60th National Conference 2009, Stewart Hayes, principal consultant at Jakeman Business Solutions, argues that, with “traditional” means of purchasing and maintaining critical hospital infrastructure systems “becoming less viable”,
a more integrated, strategic approach to procuring and providing essential hospital services that looks not just to the present, but equally to the facility’s anticipated future needs, is becoming ever more important.
It is clear that the healthcare sector is evolving to meet an increasing demand for services in a changing population demographic. Both the way these services are delivered, and the healthcare environment itself – in particular hospitals – must make more effective use of resources to complement and support this evolution. The result has been the development of integrated technologies designed to support all aspects of a patient episode and improve the quality of service provided. Alongside this trend, however, is the more pressing issue of how these services may be provided. Clearly medical and healthcare technology is evolving at a tremendous rate, placing added pressure on organisations to understand and maintain the current infrastructure, let alone be able to establish a strategy that will take them forward into the foreseeable future. This paper seeks to address the key questions of:
• What is the future healthcare environment going to look like?
• How will the technology infrastructure meet this demand?
• How can this infrastructure be provided and serviced?
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