Hospital GIS : The Intelligent Platform

Every hospital will soon use systems that enable their administration, staff, and their clients to "see" what's happening.

Some systems can already do this but their floor plan "maps" are not dynamic nor are they very intelligent. They don't offer the scalability across multiple systems, other hospital buildings, into the community, and beyond.  

An ESRI geographic information system (GIS) provides the "intelligent platform."

GIS is inherently intelligent. It provides the framework for visualization, analysis and integration that any hospital system can use. Multiple systems can be tied into the same intelligent platform - thus providing a single and highly intuitive perspective on hospital operations and management. ESRI technology is standards-based, making it compatible and integrate-able with business databases and web technologies. Hospitals and IT vendors can build applications with a common visualization / analysis engine. ESRI technology provides a database-driven visualization of hospital assets, floor plans, surrounding areas, etc. Floor plan data can come from existing CAD (computer aided design) files and RFID (radio frequency identification) can provide asset location. The GIS is a dynamic hospital data repository. Hospitals using GIS can report the exact status of every bed, allowing informed decisions about availability in emergencies. GIS also allows hospital management to see the physical location of each patient within the healthcare environment and to more efficiently allocate resources and speed up admissions.

Key Characteristics

Visualization. Keep track of medical assets - IVs, monitors, wheelchairs etc. - in and outside the hospital.

Analysis. Track and route, build spatial awareness, model workflow, and much more. Much of this is already built in.

Integration. The intelligent platform is a common interface to information. Select a room and get the patient information; select a wing, get the capacity data for the past month, or staffing records, or expenses, or use the "map" as your index to data and reports from other systems.

Understand your hospital