The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda Maryland and the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in Northern Virginia are going to open shortly. The Army spent $2.5 billion on construction and outfitting the two new hospitals.
The new Cerner™ smart suite technology being installed will bring the latest capabilities to the new integrated delivery system in the National Capital Region (NCR) helping NCR handle one-quarter of the entire inpatient military health services in the region.
Each room comes equipped with a 37 inch flat screen television doubling as a computer monitor. The smart suite technology will provide smart beds, bed-side entertainment, two-way communication devices, high resolution audiovisual technology, and wireless capability. The technology will enable patients to control temperature and lighting at the bedside, while providers will be able to monitor the patient’s bed status, patient position, and will be able to alert care providers when the patient needs assistance.
One of the unique Smart suite features is “myCare Team” which introduces providers to the patient digitally. It enables patients to know when a doctor enters the room and displays the doctor’s information and information on the patient’s medical team. Another feature is “RoomLink”, an electronic signage device placed outside a patient’s room that displays patient information including allergies and even allows the patients to update their status.
The smart suites will be integrated with Military Health System Clinical Systems (Essentris and CHCS) to give critical care clinicians a single intuitive dashboard that displays electronic medical record and device data without having to log into different systems and view multiple pages.
In preparation for the smart suites, Cerner did a workflow analysis and held kick-off sessions with clinical staff from Dewitt Army Community Hospital, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and the National Naval Medical Center to look at the new technology and observe on-site operations.
