Hospital Innovations

[carl5480]

I was just wondering if anyone has seen any cool new ideas or innovations where they work that make their lives easier? Things like a tube system for medications/lab samples (not really NEW, but a lot of facilities don't use them yet). Or a "Discharge Waiting Area" where patients who have been discharged but are simply waiting for, say, a ride can wait (under supervision of a staff member), which frees up much-needed rooms sooner. Anything goes, just curious as to what new ideas people have seen implemented that seem to be working.

[mcleanl]

My hospital is as old as it gets...with very little in the way of innovation. The one thing that they have, that I have never seen before....and I really like.....is that there aren't any preprinted forms. Everything is on the computer and I go under the patients name, click on the forms I need (consent, DNR, pro-op etc) and the form prints out....in duplicate or triplicate as needed.

[GreyGull]

All the patient education material is online and in several different languages. You don't have to worry if someone restocked or took the last one.

The P&Ps are also online and easier to look up rather than having volumes of paper.

[canigraduate]

Interesting, but how does that work with patients on isolation precautions?

It's accessible from the outside and the inside. Clean stuff goes into the cabinet from the outside. You just pull out what you need from the inside. I guess it would have to be emptied after an isolation patient.