The value of a digital operating room

The journey towards a completely digitized “Hospital 4.0” continues. Novel innovative technologies are constantly pushing their way into all areas of healthcare, not least into the high-performance centerpieces of hospitals – the operating rooms. By shifting the focus towards digitization and increasingly implementing digital O.R. solutions, hospitals aim to optimize, automate and interlink processes to leverage untapped potentials. With respect to the rapid evolution of digital technologies in hospitals, SKC conducted observations and interviews with several European clinics in a recent project. The target of this project was to investigate how a digital O.R. solution could affect the economic and medical performance of hospitals’ operating rooms. Furthermore, relevant prerequisites and success factors that enable hospitals to realize promised digitization potentials were explored. 

The operating area or even the individual operating room is characterized by a multi-disciplinary environment in which different user groups have different requirements regarding the equipment configuration. In order to generate deep insights into the hospitals’ perspective and enhance customer understanding of the individual requirements, SKC followed a design-thinking approach using a range of methodological tools, which are particularly suitable in the presence of complex user environments. Thus, a profound understanding of the customer's status quo could be developed and the inpatient workflows as well as the challenges, requirements and attitudes of hospitals regarding digitization could be better understood. 

The detailed strategic project findings and derived implications for hospitals are outlined in a comprehensive Whitepaper. The Whitepaper especially provides recommendations for hospitals who prepare for as well as who are already realizing digital transformation and can serve as a guide for medical device manufacturers active in the field of digitization. If you would like to learn more about the project results and the identified customer value of digitization in the hospital setting, especially in the operating room, please feel free to request a free copy of the Whitepaper using the form provided below.