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We want hospitals to leverage their existing technology investments so that 1+1 = 3 and they gain greater value than the value of those technologies alone. Interoperability is part of Ascom’s DNA and pivotal to our vendor agnostic strategy.
As the number of smart devices proliferates in hospitals, interoperability moves from being a nice to have to a key requirement. With more health systems in the U.S. consolidating, administrators are taking a more holistic approach to managing their IT stack - they want to increase their ROI through greater efficiencies gained by technologies that “talk” to each other while also reducing the use of many separate technologies and collapsing the architecture needed in the health system that must be purchased and maintained.
One of the most critical investment areas in 2023 is clinical workflow solutions to help nurses combat the increasing challenges they face on the job today, as identified by a recent Ascom survey – more patients, sicker ones, and rising incidents of violence against staff. In U.S. hospitals, the rate of technology adoption increased dramatically during the pandemic. This year we’re going to see more healthcare systems move from a pull model for accessing clinical information to a push model as they invest in “last-mile technologies.” These technologies are designed to deliver information directly into the care provider’s hands at the bedside. It’s time for intelligent alarming, early warning scoring and medical device integration that goes directly to a nurse via a mobile handset to become a standard of care outside the ICU.
That makes interoperability more important than ever. We want hospitals to leverage their existing technology investments so that 1+1 = 3 and they gain greater value than the value of those technologies alone. Interoperability is part of Ascom’s DNA and pivotal to our vendor agnostic strategy. The Ascom Healthcare Platform is helping to advance some of the most common workflows nurses encounter, thanks to integrations with different medical devices using multiple healthcare languages. With Ascom’s Digistat solution, for example, nurses can view near real time data acquired from many medical devices integrated and patient demographic information. This may help reduce readmission, negative events, and reduction of events to caregivers based on proximity (RTLS). The more integration also allows for better contextual information in alarms and events providing necessary information to make faster decisions.
Our interoperability team approaches this important component in three layers – complying with technical requirements and industry standards, shaping new industry standards through industry associations, and creating direct relationships with companies through our Ascom Partners and Interoperability Program. These three components allow us to stay ahead of advancements in areas like wireless, security, mobile apps, and more. Our partner program established more than two decades ago goes deeper make sure our products work with the latest technology features of some more than 60 of healthcare technology leaders. It ensures we’re up to date on their roadmaps and they stay current with ours. Additionally, we’re continually listening to our customers’ needs as they demand and they are realizing the “promise of technology” integrating seamlessly across their facilities. Going forward, Ascom’s commitment to interoperability will continue to be at the heart of what we do. That means whichever Ascom technology a hospital implements, they can rest assured it will not only fit into their existing technology solutions, but also optimize their workflows.