Hospitals and other medical facilities have a tough role to fulfill for the greater good of society. This is compounded by the current health crisis that puts medical professionals at additional risk and puts them under increased demand and stress. Modern technology is eager to provide solutions in these dark times, and there are many great ways to save money and increase efficacy by embracing modern tech. Here are a few tips that can help your hospital stay afloat and remain effective during the pandemic.
Solar Energy
Hospitals depend heavily on technology at every level in order to provide not only vital healthcare, but also recordkeeping and lighting and air conditioning around the clock. This means that medical facilities are uniquely positioned to accept the necessary evil of an outrageous electricity bill. Furthermore, hospitals run an even greater risk in the event of a power outage, because essential machinery can be rendered inoperable, leading to complications or loss of life. Solar energy provides a valuable alternative to the traditional electrical grid that can save your facility a ton of money and give you vital protection against otherwise devastating outages. Solar panels are fairly inexpensive to install, for starters, and they provide a major reduction in your monthly electricity costs. Solar panels are also tax deductible as part of various green initiatives, saving you even more money.
However, one limitation of solar energy is that it can only be generated during the day. However, installing solar battery storage can allow you to create a stockpile of excess energy gathered during the day for use around the clock. This is not only an essential part of making solar energy more viable for replacing traditional electricity, but it’s also a way that solar energy can protect you from power outages. Solar energy is quickly proving to be a valuable asset for many homes and businesses, but hospitals in particular stand to save lives by implementing an alternative power source that isn’t prone to failing during inclement weather.
IoT Recordkeeping
Paperwork accounts for up to two thirds of the workload of doctors these days, and that can have a number of implications in terms of both the efficiency of healthcare and the cost of operating medical facilities. Modern technology has answers to this problem, starting with a paperless business model. Going paperless is a common cost cutting measure that is generally beneficial for clients and businesses alike, because keeping track of paper documents is as cumbersome to your patients as they are to your staff. Printing also accounts for a variety of insidious repeat costs such as paper, ink, and toner. Printers can be prohibitively costly in and of themselves, and they will also require periodic maintenance, and these costs add up.
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Beyond simply going paperless, you can also implement IoT organizational tools that can simplify the process of doing paperwork and keeping track of your patients’ medical records. Patients should be encouraged to fill out paperwork digitally, for starters, so that their input can be automatically entered into your database in an easily catalogued and easily recalled way. Giving patients access to an app with which they can submit this kind of information can save even more time by allowing them to keep track of updates in between appointments and feed them directly to their doctors, as well as the database. This kind of technology excels at creating dynamic databases and simultaneously reducing the effort and redundancies that recordkeeping typically entails. This will save your hospital an incredible amount of time and money while simultaneously giving you a more complete, more accurate overview of your patients’ well being, both in microcosm and in the long term.
Automated Supply Chain
The supply chain is the lifeblood of any business, and that sentiment takes on a more literal meaning in the context of a medical facility that depends on live saving supplies regularly and reliably. Managing your hospital’s supply chain is a matter of the utmost importance, but that doesn’t mean that it also has to consume a lot of valuable time. By automating your supply chain, you can ensure that you always have what you need without investing too much time into keeping inventory and placing orders. Perhaps more importantly, automating the supply chain can help to reduce waste, something that is always appreciated for its fiscal benefits. Now, however, wasting medical supplies can create additional problems as certain supplies are in higher demand during the pandemic, and you can’t afford that kind of waste right now.
Medical professionals never have it easier, but the pandemic has escalated the responsibility and the burden placed on these hard working men and women. However, there are technological tools available that can help your medical facility optimize its operations and reduce costs in order to make the current climate just a little bit more sustainable.
