Forum 12 Key Takeaways

At Forum 12, we explored Harnessing digital to drive efficiencies in healthcare design and processes. The day was jampacked with discussions and debates around how this can be achieved effectively and how it is worthwhile investing in quality digital solutions.

Event in summary

The Forum was hosted at the London Showroom, which is shared with two of our Founders; Yewdale and Hygenius. One of the key points that was raised, was the benefit of using digital to assist with creating unrestricted observation for staff across wards, building a single viewpoint of all patients.

As the healthcare industry is ever evolving, it has never been more critical than it is now to avoid acting with a “knee jerk” reaction. We need to be more open to new ways of working and need to stop paving the way for tunnel vision, where we head in only one direction.

We have seen from the Covid19 Pandemic that things can change at a second’s notice. Many professionals have had to adjust to this new era and are seeing the variety of benefits and endless opportunities that they have come upon through using digital. It was great to hear from attendees such as Epsom and St Helier University Hospital, HLM Architects, Static Systems and other attendees on the opportunities that digital provides to the industry as a whole.

Experts share their experience

Neil Orpwood from HLM Architects, kicked off the day with a presentation which identified how digital could be used to re-think and re-size wards making wards more efficient, which ultimately will help to make observation easier for staff across all patient rooms. It also highlighted how digital can be used to feed into all wards, allowing seamless, quick and easy communication between the different staff members across the multiple floors.

The presentation went onto emphasize how the Nightingale ward was the main foundation for the new way of thinking that has been critical in our movements throughout the pandemic. It is believed that adopting digital at the very early stages of the design phase, is a great way to better utilise space and through assisting with the design layout of wards; could potentially result in quicker patient turnover times, better management of allocation of patients, easy flowing of patient movement between wards and so much more.

With the dramatic rise in living costs alongside labour, materials and resources. Healthcare professionals are struggling even more with tighter budget restrictions and limited supplies. We cannot afford to throw money away, so when looking at investing in digital solutions, surely it will be best to invest in quality systems that will help in the long term, right? The cheaper systems may have been the “go to” once upon a time, but it has been recognised that the amount of work involved with maintaining these cheaper options; is not worth the stress and effort and ends up costing more down the line.

Driving change

Adopting new digital strategies can be seen as scary and there are a few that still struggle with getting used to these new systems. Some see it as a mundane task which will add to their already high workload. Others see it as more training, something else they have to learn, but there is much more support than there has been in the past. More companies are offering training, easy to follow user guides, CPD’s and more. It’s time for us to move with the times and to strive for excellence. To build better healthcare facilities of tomorrow, we must take that leap together.

Overall, it was agreed that with the right investments and guidance from the experts, digital can provide more solutions and opportunities for the future of healthcare spaces and can benefit the industry across many critical areas.

We look forward to our next forum where we will be exploring how design and build processes can assist with promoting healing and recovery and should be focused on staff and patient wellbeing, ultimately adding to the overall patient experience.