4. Connected Hospital CONNECTED H OSPITAL Employers Public Health Organizations Laboratories Pharmacies Connected Clinicians Social Services Clinics Emergency / First Responders Suppliers Government and Private Payers Home and Long Term Care
As with all segments of Connected Health, connectedness and interoperability go hand-in-hand in the Cisco vision for a Connected Hospital. Information is shared across the organization and between stakeholders outside the organization—all to benefit the patient in the context of a Connected Health Community. Because the information is digital, the sharing is anytime, anywhere. A Connected Hospital is: interoperable, integrating care across the continuum—hospitals, physicians practices, and long term care, and even extends into patients’ homes; patient-centered and science based, using IT to augment the professional skills, memory and performance of caregivers; and integrated at each core and ancillary functional area of the delivery system. In this model of a healthcare system, the Connected Hospital plays the conductor role, with coordination and collaboration starting at the point of care. Information critical to patient care is shared whenever and wherever necessary; and continuity of care for the patient is seamless and quickly accomplished. Currently, hospitals share information by relatively primitive methods—telephone, facsimile machine and paper-based copying. Of the more than 30 billion individual healthcare communications in the United States, more than 90 percent were sent by fax, surface mail, or telephone. As a result, the information is not always available in a timely fashion at the point of decision and care, where it is most needed.
Let’s take a closer look at the major participants in a Connected Health system. The Connected Patient is at the center and describes patients that better understand health issues and services, can manage their own care and health information, and can navigate within the healthcare ecosystem. Connected Clinician includes all clinical professionals in their delivery of services to patients. The Connected Hospital includes hospital management and healthcare services in both public and private hospital settings. Connected Health Information Exchanges focus on interoperability of healthcare information at the local, regional, national, and international levels. Connected Life Sciences and Research includes pharmaceutical and biotech industries, medical product and device manufacturers, healthcare distributors and suppliers, and medical research enterprises. Connected Funder or Payer includes public or private organizations that are responsible for financing and arranging healthcare services. Connected Public Health includes solutions that support government-sponsored public health: for example, epidemiology, environmental surveillance, and infectious disease tracking and management. Finally, Connected Health Authorities includes solutions and policy work relating to departments of health, health ministries, regional health authorities, and other governmental or quasigovernmental agencies.