The Right Touch In The Surgical Center

I’m always on the lookout for how organizations utilize systems to help improve their workflow, whether it be a manual solution or a technical one. I’m a firm believer in balancing technology with the right environment, letting technology get out of the way and do what it does best. The past three weeks have been no different as my daughter, Maggie, has been at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, and I’ve noticed the hospital striking a great balance across multiple departments and floors.

While waiting for the surgeons to come take Maggie to surgery this morning, I noticed this huge patient dashboard display. It is a Unifi Smart Board that displays a Word document from a main computer, allowing the nurses to touch the screen and input text using a large on-screen keyboard. They keep this Word document updated with where the patient is and how they are doing. The board also supports annotating using special pens, but according to the nurses, they don’t use it for that. It is fascinating to watch the nurses manipulate this large Word document using their fingers.

There are several of these units on the floor, all tied in to the same Word document, allowing instant update from anywhere on the floor.

 

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