Digital enhancements planned for new Stanford Hospital

When you’re a patient in the hospital, details count.

It matters whether you can easily access your own health data. Or whether you have to stand in line to check in for your surgery. Or whether you can control the temperature and the lighting in your hospital room.

Teams at Stanford are keeping this in mind as they design and build the new Stanford Hospital, which is slated to open later this year. Along with constructing walls and decorating the interior, workers also are developing digital tools for patients and clinicians. As Alpa Vyas, vice president of patient experience for Stanford Health Care, said in a recent Stanford Medicine newsletter article: “The service and the culture we create inside must complement and enhance the physical environment.”

Features include an enhanced MyHealth app, which can digitally admit patients and provide them access to their record before, during and after their hospital stay. Another highlight will be the technology in each room: a 55-inch television screen and an iPad allow patients to stream their own content, while remote climate control, lighting and blinds give them power over their surroundings.

"We understand that people feel very vulnerable as patients in a hospital bed," Vyas says. "When designing the patient rooms, we looked at some of the small things we can put back into the hands of our patients to give them a sense of control over their environment."

The Stanford team is building enhancements for staff members, too, through a secure messaging platform. As the article notes:

This article was originally published on Scope Published by Stanford Medicine by AMY JETER HANSEN.

Photo by Steve Fisch