That future seems to be here, as Kate McDonald reports.
To the many who remember the days when the only access to TV for patients and staff was to gather around a crackly little number perched high on the wall of a patient lounge – and for some hospitals, that is still a reality – the idea of one little monitor located at the bed-head providing an enormous range of entertainment and information services may seem like a fantasy.
Those days are here, however. Patients, staff and management alike are keen on accessing not just entertainment systems but the internet, intranets and clinical information systems as quickly and efficiently as possible. And it is now possible, with a multitude of new services providing a multitude of applications right at the patient's bedside.
These days, it is possible to access television, video on demand, the internet, patient records, internal communications and even menu plans all on one monitor. It is all powered by triple-play internet protocol
television (IPTV), the gold standard for the new digital hospital.
One Australian company that is pioneering these applications is MiCall, best known for its merlon nurse call system. According to MiCall's CEO, Iain Everington, IPTV can provide a wealth of services that not just patients but staff and management alike are demanding.
MiCall has got together with a Melbourne company called CombiTel, a UK manufacturer of smart monitors called
JAOtech and a range different internet service providers to offer a package that includes VoIP telephony, video on demand, the internet, digital signage, the merlon nurse call system and at the same time allow clinicians to access the patient's medical records all on the same monitor, at the head of the patient's bed. They can even order meals.
"The idea is to bring everything to the patient," Everington says. "We are dealing with a lot of IT departments that are very strong on this. In Sydney, we have done St George Private and are currently doing North Shore Private and Kareena Private.
We are upgrading Westmead Private and Healthscope's new Norwest Private. We are doing trials for North Shore Public and a CombiTel system is currently going into the new Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne.
"We are also talking to people in the ACT Government and the NSW Government, which are looking at what these things do. They want to achieve the total digital hospital, and these technologies are all part of the total solution."
Future proof
MiCall is of course best known for its nurse call system, the first such system in Australia to work through IP. According to Everington, nurse call systems are no longer just an alarm system from patients to nurse – they are the conduit through which many more services can be delivered.
"It's really a natural progression," he says. "With the patient bed-head, it all becomes part of the hospital. Your x-ray can be viewed on your screen. The doctor can come in and use an iPad or a palm pilot or he can use the monitor,
and he has access to all of the medical records wherever he goes. He can simultaneously connect through to different departments within the hospital – to medical records, pharmacology, x-ray. It's the next step along
the road as far as high-end hospitals go."
Any by using the existing or even new nurse call infrastructure based on IP, the hospital can future-proof itself, he says. "If we bring out new products or other devices become available, it is very easy to link them up. The secret to the future is that you are on a network that you know is going to be around for another 50 years."
And it is not just hospitals that are looking at these systems. Aged care facilities looking to install new nurse call systems are catching on, as so many other applications can be easily delivered.
MiCall is also talking to overseas hospitals about delivering similar systems. One is already installed in a hospital in South Africa and another is ready to go; the company has recently appointed an agent in Dubai after attending a
number of trade shows in the Middle East and north Africa; and there is a great deal of interest from China, where vast hospitals of up to 5000 beds are being constructed.
"And yet everything is manufactured here in Melbourne," Everington says. The company also distributes a range of DECT phones (see p35), and has recently begun to distribute the SCALA system of digital signage products.
"These guys have been around for years and were doing this before anyone else even thought of it," he says. "It is exceptionally high quality and we can provide very easy delivery of video, say for a residential village. Head office can have a content provider and make their own content, so basically it is your own TV station.
"Hospitals need their own information systems for different departments, such as maternity, surgery and other discrete areas. SCALA can deliver those as a TV channel – it gives them information on all of the procedures and lots of other information. It is interactive so that includes food ordering services. You have a complete digital menu at your bed-head.
