Digitalization in Health
Digital Hospitals
Nurdan Oral KaraIn recent years, the healthcare sector has been transformed by advances in information and communication technology. One example of the digitalization of all administrative and clinical processes in healthcare is the increasing proliferation of digital hospitals. Digital hospitals integrate the latest technologies, such as medical devices, intelligent information systems, building control, automated conveyor systems, and location-based services. The concept of digital hospitals aims to increase staff efficiency, facilitate hospital operations, improve process quality, and ensure patient safety. In other words, digital hospitals are paperless hospitals that make hospital management processes more efficient and integrate many healthcare technologies, such as hospital information management systems, digital medical records, PACS, digital medical archives, barcode systems, RFID technologies, and medication and supply tracking. Digital hospitals essentially consist of clinical information systems and diagnostic and treatment systems. Clinical information systems collect and provide important clinical information about patients and consist of subsystems such as electronic health records, clinical decision support systems, nurse information systems, patient tracking systems, telemedicine, smart card applications, clinical guides, and nursing applications. Systems that support diagnosis and treatment consist of imaging systems, laboratory diagnostic systems, and other medical technology subsystems. The digitality stages of hospitals are certified by HIMSS, with stages determined by EMRAM. Hospitals that are classified at stages 6 and 7 of the EMRAM criteria, which are between 0 and 7, are considered digital. Digital hospitals have many benefits, such as making it easier for doctors and nurses to access patient information, shortening hospital wait and stay times, minimizing medical and administrative errors, and lowering costs by reducing the use of digital records, paper, and film. In addition, reducing the use of paper and providing radiology images via digital media is an effective way to protect the environment. It increases patient safety in medication monitoring and the safe use of medications by reducing medical errors. Evaluating performance enables managers to use financial resources effectively and efficiently. This section provides information on the concept of the digital hospital, digitalization and its impact on the healthcare system, digital health technologies, the conditions and components of a digital hospital, and the criteria of HIMSS and EMRAM.