By HEATHER CHAMBERS
Orlando Portale, chief technology and innovation officer for Palomar Pomerado Health, is working on the “hospital of the future.”
Before the hospital of the future makes its present-day debut in Escondido, Palomar Pomerado Health has to get tomorrow’s technologies right.
Wireless patient monitoring, “telepresence” robots controlled by doctors at home and in-room temperature and ambient control systems are just a few of the technologies being put to the test by the healthcare district, which said it is on schedule to build the $773 million Palomar Medical Center West by July 2011.
Executives with the hospital district say the new technologies aim to improve patient safety and hospital cleanliness while also adding to a patient’s sense of well-being.
“We’re trying to rethink how healthcare is going to be delivered and how technology can be an enabler,” said Portale.
He advised Palomar Pomerado Health to make its new hospital plans virtual, joining the healthcare district with the 3-D online interactive world of Second Life. There, participants can create a virtual image of themselves and navigate the hospital’s inner workings.
Michael Covert, chief executive of the 800-square-mile healthcare district, said that although the technologies Palomar Pomerado Health is considering have been in use at other hospitals, Palomar Medical Center West will be the first to combine them in a single setting.
“What we’re building here has not been built in all of the U.S.,” Covert told a group of city leaders from Escondido and San Marcos along with about a half dozen reporters who had gathered for a sneak peek of the mock-up rooms.
Michael Shanahan, director of facilities, planning and development for the healthcare district, along with Covert, showcased the beefed-up rooms,almost double the size of a standard room at Palomar Medical Center today,which are outfitted with wall-sized LCD screens allowing patients to control room temperature, order meals, surf the Internet, conduct videoconferences with their doctors, play music and post family photos.
Another feature: a remote controlled lift, which assists nurses and physicians in carrying a patient to the bathroom. The lift, hospital executives said, might help avoid accidental falls, a common but preventable occurrence in hospitals today.
“It’s a big safety issue,” Shanahan said. “New technologies can really enhance safety.”
But managing those new technologies is another task altogether, according to Dr. Barry Hieb, a director at Gartner Research, an information technology advisory firm.
Hospitals often face workflow challenges when introducing technologies into their workspace, Hieb said.
“The biggest challenge that we face is integrating all this stuff into something that works for the patient, for the nurse, for the doctor and for the technician,” he said. “If you have all these different systems, but they’re all separate, that doesn’t help.”
Robroy Fawcett, an Escondido patent attorney and outspoken critic of the health district’s construction plans, said he supports the use of new technologies at Palomar.
“Generally, technology increases productivity and reduces errors,” he said.
But, he added, “I hope they wouldn’t just forget they’re still treating patients at the existing hospital and need the latest and greatest there, too,” he said.
The new 1.2 million-square-foot, 453-bed Escondido hospital is part of an overall expansion plan that also involves renovating the existing Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, expanding Pomerado Hospital in Poway and building several satellite medical centers.
The hospital is partly being funded through a $496 million bond measure approved by voters in 2004.
In May, Palomar Pomerado Health officials decided to change the hospital’s construction manager from Rudolph and Sletten Inc. to DPR Construction Inc., both based in Redwood City with offices in San Diego, citing cost savings as a reason.
Los Angeles-based CO Architects remains in charge of the hospital’s design.
Palomar Medical Center West broke ground last fall at the Escondido Research and Technology Center.
Chambers is a staff writer for the San Diego Business Journal.
