NCET Biz Tips: Patient Care Gets a Big Step Up at Renown Health
Imagine a major airport without air traffic control to clear aircraft for takeoff or landing or a means to ensure that prescribed runway separation exists at all times. Lack of efficiency and safety would be cause for concern.
Recognizing that hospital operations are similar to how air traffic controllers manage traffic in and out of airports, Renown has taken its healthcare vision to new heights by opening a state-of-the-art Transfer and Operations Center (RTOC). This new operations center offers real-time situational awareness of what is happening across Renown’s entire hospital system that serves Nevada, Lake Tahoe, and northeast California.
Opened this past August, the RTOC is a highly coordinated care logistics system that allows customized healthcare for every patient. The 6,000 square foot RTOC allows every unit in the hospital to work in concert to make decisions about patients transferred in and from rural hospitals, coming into the emergency room, heading into the operating room, or moving between hospital units. The result is a higher level of efficiency and patient care.
Renown Health is a locally governed, not-for-profit integrated healthcare network spanning a 100,000 square mile service area. Employees number 7,200. Reno is home. One little-known fact about Renown’s history is that it began as Washoe Clinic to treat smallpox victims during the Comstock Lode silver boom. For more than 140 years, Renown has brought innovative treatment and new technologies to the region.
The RTOC is equipped with 28 Samsung displays which form a series of custom dashboards that monitor occupancy in every hospital unit. Ceiling-mounted Samsung displays allow Renown’s team to watch real-time news feeds and triage what might be coming into the hospital. A separate conference room is adjacent to the main RTOC area with dual displays for videoconferencing and accessing feeds from the RTOC dashboards.
While the RTOC itself is impressive, it’s the people who work there and the resulting care they provide for our community that stands out. RTOC technology allows these dedicated individuals to expand their reach and serve patients in the rural and remote communities across Renown’s service area.
As mentioned in an August 2021 case study, the RTOC helps maximize efficiency in every part of the hospital. A unique feature of this solution is the decision to run video encoders and decoders across Renown’s network. This feature makes the system expandable and allows Renown to add camera sources from anywhere on their network, thereby adding more situational awareness and real-time decision-making. What’s on the RTOC docket for the future? Adding point-of-view cameras to their helicopter landing pad and emergency room entrances is the next phase.
RTOC benefits are many and include:
Coordinating all incoming patients transferred from neighboring hospitals
Matching patients to the appropriate bed placements
Providing in-house hospitality
Coordinating video-enabled Telehealth monitoring capabilities for Renown’s four intensive care units
Monitoring for remote home systems
Emergency and disaster management
As with any other business, Renown does face challenges. Disparities in health, community wellness, gaps in service, and available care for vulnerable populations are national healthcare problems. Renown is overcoming these challenges by being an active member of the Reno-Sparks community and the communities of their rural and remote neighbors. Renown puts the patient in the middle of everything they do. Renown’s value-based care approach remains focused on quality of care, health outcomes, and patient satisfaction.
Bill Leonard
Recently recognized as one of America’s best hospitals, Renown Regional Medical Center includes a trauma center, two acute care hospitals, a children’s hospital, a rehabilitation hospital, a medical group, and urgent care network. They also have clinical institutes for cancer, heart and vascular health, and neurosciences.
The future for efficiency in healthcare has arrived. You can find it at Renown’s new Transfer and Operations Center.
Want to learn more about the Renown Transfer and Operations Center? Sign up for NCET’s Tech Wednesday on November 10, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. for an onsite presentation and tour with networking from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. More information at https://www.ncet.org/ncet-event-calendar/renown-toc
Bill Leonard is NCET’s VP of Communications and a freelance content writer of white papers, case studies, and blogs for disruptive companies. Connect with Bill at LinkedIn.com/in/BillLeonardUSA. NCET produces educational and networking events to help people explore business and technology. (www.NCET.org)
NCET produces educational and networking events to help people explore business and technology. (www.NCET.org)