Hospital Employee Experiences Caring for Patients in Smart Patient Rooms

Document Title

Hospital Employee Experiences Caring for Patients in Smart Patient Rooms

Document Information

• Subject Area: Smart hospitals, patient room technology, and its impact on employee and patient experiences
• Keywords: Smart hospital, rehabilitation hospital, smart patient room, smart healthcare, smart home technology, accessibility

Research Background and Issues

• Problem or Challenge: Smart Patient Rooms (SPR), primarily designed to enhance patient experience, also impact hospital staff workflows. However, there is limited research on hospital employees' experiences working in smart patient rooms.
• Significance: Smart patient rooms not only affect hospital operational efficiency and patient safety but also influence the work experiences of staff such as doctors, nurses, and rehabilitation therapists, indirectly impacting the quality of patient care and satisfaction.
• Research Motivation and Related Work:
  • Smart hospital technology is increasingly becoming a critical component of healthcare facility design, but existing studies mainly focus on patient perspectives or technology development, lacking comprehensive understanding of employee usage experiences.
  • The authors propose the following research questions:
    1. How do hospital employees use smart patient room technology?
    2. From the employee perspective, what are the advantages and disadvantages of smart patient rooms, and how can institutions overcome related challenges?
    3. What suggestions do employees have for improving smart patient rooms? What opportunities exist for future designs?

Solution

• Research Methods: Data on smart patient room usage experiences were collected through semi-structured interviews with 23 hospital employees across 9 occupational groups to understand SPR usage, technological advantages and disadvantages, and explore workflow optimization and technology improvement potential.
• Innovations:
  • Focused on hospital employees' perspectives to study smart patient room experiences.
  • Explored how employees utilize SPR technology to support treatment and rehabilitation.
• Key Technologies and Implementation Steps:
  • Utilized hospital-provided smart devices (e.g., iPads) and wall-mounted switches to control room environments.
  • Quantitative analysis of employee usage frequency of SPR functions.
  • Extracted employee needs for technological improvements and automation through interviews.

Research Findings

• Specific Results:

  1. Usage of SPR Technology:
     • Different occupational groups exhibited varying usage patterns; some employees primarily used the equipment for therapy and rehabilitation (e.g., speech therapists and occupational therapists), while others (e.g., doctors and nurses) mainly used it for environmental control or did not use it at all.
     • Common uses included environmental control (lighting, curtains, room temperature) and assisting rehabilitation therapy, such as sharing swallowing videos on the TV display.
  2. Advantages of SPR: Enhanced patient autonomy and independence, reduced frequency of staff performing environmental control tasks, and improved satisfaction for both patients and employees.
  3. Disadvantages of SPR:
     • Entertainment functions (e.g., TV, AirPlay features) were prone to technical issues.
     • Patient privacy concerns could lead to anxiety (e.g., use of room cameras).
  4. Institutional Responses:
     • Two new positions were established to support the technology: Health Unit Coordinator (HUC) and IT Manager.
     • Provided employee training and feedback mechanisms to continuously improve SPR.
  5. Employee Suggestions:
     • Increase room automation settings (e.g., automatically adjusting lighting and sound when a doctor enters the room).
     • Expand voice assistant capabilities to improve patient calls to nurses or enable employees to use voice for record-keeping.
     • Adopt robotic technologies (e.g., adjustable iPad stands) to enhance patient convenience.
     • Automate record-keeping (e.g., patient care time) to simplify staff documentation processes.

• Advantages Compared to Existing Solutions:

  • SPR not only serves patients but also assists employees, driving technology iteration through employee feedback.
  • Greater focus on improving employees' daily workflows.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • SPR functions designed for patients provided some support for employee workflows in practice but faced issues with technological reliability.
  • Hospital employees generally had positive evaluations of SPR technology but noted that insufficient training and equipment malfunctions could be time-consuming.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Data from a single hospital may lack representativeness, requiring expansion to more scenarios and institutions.
  • Further research is needed on automation, multimodal interface design, and privacy management.
  • Explore how to implement robotic assistance and intelligent notifications in patient room environments.