No paper charts will be stored in Dunedin’s new digital hospital, which aims to be “paper lite” with a full digital
health record.
The Digital Blueprint for the new hospital envisions the use of autonomous guided vehicles, a pharmacy robot and digital
operating rooms.
Patient and staff location details, as well as assets, will be tracked across the hospital site using a combination of
Bluetooth and RFID wrist bands.
Patients will be able to “check-in” via kiosks or on a new Dunedin Hospital app, which will act as a “digital
wayfinder”, providing information about car parking and directions once on site.
Southern DHB executive director people, culture & technology Mike Collins will be talking further about Southern’s Digital Blueprint at a free eHealthNews Live webinar
on 28 May 2020 Digital Hospitals: stories from the South Island.
He says the blueprint is centred around 18 major workstreams.
A team is working to define the scope of each of these and determine what some of the solutions will look like, how they
will integrate and some indicative costing.
He admits the plans are “ambitious”, but says the arrival of Covid-19 has already greatly accelerated the pace of
transformation within the hospital, such as wide adoption of telehealth for virtual appointments.
The blueprint says telehealth video conferencing will be available throughout the new facility and on mobile devices and
a patient engagement system will provide patient and staff details, on demand meal ordering and staff access to the
digital health record.
Southern will continue to develop its digital health record system based on a “best of breed” approach, leveraging
Health Connect South and enhancing integration with existing systems.
The new hospital will use the South Islands Patient Information Care System, with the project to migrate already “in
flight”, and a new patient portal will be developed, it says.
Collins says the DHB plans on creating a physical space called MyLab to showcase some of the elements from the
blueprint.
This will be open to both staff and the public to feedback on the ideas and “help co-design what the future will look
like”, he says.
Collins will be joined in the webinar by Chris Rumball, clinical lead Sense Medical; Saxon Conner, e-clinical health
lead, Canterbury DHB; Bev Nicolls, clinical director information systems, Nelson Marlborough DHB; and Lisa Livingstone,
registered nurse, Nelson Marlborough DHB.
Read more about Southern’s Digital Vision.