High-tech ‘mission control center’ helps hospital system run like NASA
An eight-hospital health system in the Pacific Northwest has set up an AI-based “mission control center” to manage patient capacity, bed availability, hospital transfers and patients’ health status.
Tacoma, Wash.-based CHI Franciscan selected GE Healthcare to supply its predictive-analytics technologies, which will allow the system to automatically coordinate care based on objective data rather than subjective observation.
Reporting on the development, the Kitsap Daily News notes CHI Franciscan (the acronym stands for Catholic Health Initiatives) is first to use the technology in Washington State and only the fifth health system in the world to deploy it.
A photo accompanying the article shows a bank of computer monitors being viewed by seven or eight people.
Along with a central hub housing 18 wall-mounted screens in one location, the high-tech setup has three satellite centers inside hospitals.
Mary Ragsdale, MSN, RN, MBA, the institution’s chief officer of operations and nursing who is chairing the mission control’s board, tells the newspaper patients can expect a better experience and reduced waiting times.
“Not only is [the control center] going to help us with our quality and safety,” she says, but “it’s also going to fundamentally increase the access to all of our sites so that, when patients need to get into our hospitals or facilities, we have the capacity and capability to bring them in to meet or exceed their expectations.”
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Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.