Case Study: Leading Canadian Healthcare Facility
How interactive flat panel displays improved patient-centered care, clinician collaboration, research and education.
About the customer
This hospital is a leading healthcare facility in Canada. It regularly contributes to medical research in maternal, infant and pediatric care—with more than 1,000 staff delivering over 7,000 babies per year. To achieve a never-before-seen standard of healthcare, its facilities underwent significant redevelopment including construction of a new building, expanding the clinical space, upgrading care units and adopting innovative technology.
"The patient experience has improved dramatically, and the boards have created an improved experience for clinicians, too."
Project Manager
Canadian Healthcare Facility
Challenge
Need to align doctor and patient needs in compliance with hospital standards
Outdated whiteboards inhibited communication, collaboration and presentation
Existing technology did not improve the patient experience
Inability to find solution that met functionality and infection control standards
As part of an ambitious redevelopment project, the healthcare facility wanted to modernize its communication, collaboration and presentation technology. The facility needed technology solutions that would meet both doctor and patient needs—in particular, replacing the manual, multi-step process that doctors used to review case files with patients.
Its outdated dry erase whiteboards were simply no longer effective. When patients met with doctors, they were bombarded with an onslaught of information including diagnosis, blood test results and visuals of scans presented on a computer screen. Doctors then had to move across the room to a whiteboard and draw out the procedure itself—a disjointed process with scans and images locked on a computer. Patients often walked away confused and stressed rather than knowledgeable about their situation.
But finding the right solution was not easy. The healthcare facility's project manager reached out to various vendors and no one met all its criteria for functionality and a rigorous infection control standard.
Solution
"The boards help with patients' overall stress levels, and are part of how hospitals are achieving their goal of a better patient experience."
Presented our interactive flat panel display technology
Developed custom apps and confirmed compatibility of cleaning products
Demonstrated features to improve patient experiences
Presented easy collaboration among medical professionals
Ricoh emerged from a crowd of potential vendors and presented our interactive flat panel display technology--which is part of our healthcare visual communication services. We harnessed many of our team's resources right from the beginning to develop custom apps and confirm the facility's cleaning products were compatible with the interactive whiteboards.
We demonstrated how our technology allowed clinicians to access, mark up and annotate patient images in real-time, while enabling remote collaboration with other clinicians in separate locations. Images could be saved directly to patient files for better record keeping, as well as printed and given to patients to review at home. We also showed how the interactive whiteboards made collaboration among medical professionals exceptionally easy. The interactive flat panel displays can be integrated with projectors, laptops and other technology tools without additional software.
The healthcare facility was impressed with our technology and ability to customize applications to meet the unique needs of different departments. As a result, the healthcare facility approved installation of eight interactive whiteboards across various clinical areas.
Results
Achieved goal of excellence in patient-centered care
Clearer understanding for patients during consultations
Less patient stress in discussing prognosis and treatment
Improved collaboration across various hospital departments
When families have discussions in the healthcare facility's interview rooms, they leave with a clearer understanding of their situation. This helps with patients' overall stress and anxiety levels. Departments like oncology can give patients a printout of everything they see onscreen in their appointment, enabling patients to have the information in front of them at home for reference.
Other clinical areas of the healthcare facility are also reaping the benefits of the interactive whiteboards. Physical Therapy & Occupational Therapy (PTOT) now use the technology to encourage children in need of movement therapy to draw shapes or colour. Clinicians are using the whiteboards as an educational tool in the conference boardroom. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) enlists a whiteboard for medical rounds—remotely connecting clinicians in various parts of the building to patient information.
Our interactive whiteboards have been instrumental in helping the healthcare facility achieve its goal of excellence in patient-centered care. The staff continues to explore new use cases for the technology and opportunities that were not possible prior to adoption.