What problems are you trying to solve?
Traditionally, inpatient care relies heavily on rotating shifts of the medical staff at the nursing station. Whenever there are unexpected situations, not only would the workload suddenly increase, but it would also affect patient care quality and experience. The QOCA acc solution aims to reduce hospital ward workload and streamline information and processes while improving the inpatient experience in order to provide high-quality care in a patient-centric care environment.
Why is the problem critically chosen?
Cathay General Hospital (CGH) * wishes to address challenges faced by traditional inpatient care through a well integrated smart solution such as QOCA acc.
Traditionally, information such as patient intake, IV, medication, and regular care records are updated manually which is time-consuming and prone to error, consequently increasing workload. More importantly, errors could potentially lead to care quality degradation and even legal liabilities. In the case of emergency, the nursing station also needs more effective communication tools to reach nurses and doctors on duty to avoid unnecessary delays. In the meantime, the hospital hopes to enhance patient experience with more convenient access to bedside communication, information, and self-help services such as food ordering.
* Cathay General Hospital: https://en.cgh.org.tw/
What technologies are applied to solve the problem?
•Bedside Care System. The Bedside Care System is comprised of:
o Mobile care devices and applications
o Nurse station terminals
o Smart patient terminals
•Smart Bedside Card System to automate care information update
•Flexible networking integration including Wi-Fi, 4G and 5G
•Private, secure, and scalable on-premise cloud computing for safe and efficient communication, collaboration, and centralized management
Any particular areas of improvement?
By leveraging Quanta’s smart ward solution QOCA acc**, Cathay General Hospital took significant steps to build a more advanced and friendly patient-centered care environment, beginning with cardiovascular patient wards. First by integrating the Smart Bedside Card System with the Healthcare Information System (HIS) and Nursing Information System (NIS), inpatient information and care reminders are automatically updated to eliminate the need of manual updates by the nursing staff. Then, the Smart Patient Terminal provides inpatients with convenient access to medical information, educational content, communication, and various self-services to reduce staff-assisted requests. Moreover, seamless integration with the care team’s mobile devices facilitate real-time communication for more streamlined and efficient work processes.
The overall private cloud-based architecture of QOCA acc ensures security and integrity while simplifying the coordination and streamlining of inpatient care. While allowing integration with Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), it also provides an additional care management portal for the care team to manage, monitor, and analyze patient conditions with minimum staff resource. Additionally, the extensibility to include patient wearables (Internet of Medical Things, or IoMTs) such as ECG and indoor locationing devices, the solution enables Cathay General Hospital to continually expand the scope of smart ward inpatient care towards more comprehensive care experiences.
**QOCA acc: http://www.qoca.net/product.php?id=2#Serv
What have you learned and how would the technology advancement potentially or practically help?
The realization of a smart ward brought about improved care quality and patient satisfaction. Especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, it is now more important than ever to design and build highly efficient hospital care environments in which automated and streamlined processes can help the nursing staff focus on critical and urgent tasks while reducing errors and unexpected outcomes. Going forward, combined with connected IoMT devices such as ECG monitors, wireless thermometers, activity sensors, and enhanced alerting system, the smart ward solution can help advance care services for patients with severe or special conditions, such as those with COVID-19 in isolated treatment environment.
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