What will the hospital of the future look like? How will it operate? Health care leaders agree that hospitals of the future will be…More digital. More innovative. More efficient. More accessible. More integrated. More sustainable. More personalized. The hospital of the future will be a hospital without walls.
The global health care sector was already using new technologies and processes to extend care delivery outside the hospital setting when COVID-19 forced providers to transform operations overnight and dramatically adopt virtual visits and remote patient monitoring. This shift will augment physical and virtual care in a meaningful and integrated way that delivers a superior patient experience and better clinical outcomes. It will also impact the health workforce and reshape what, how, and where work is performed and by whom.
While the envisioned future still calls for brick-and-mortar hospitals, all but the highest acuity care and procedures will shift away from this setting and be delivered in the community; whether it’s stepped-up/-down clinics, retail locations, schools or community facilities, workplaces, or, most often, a patient’s home. This move will be enabled through interoperable/joined-up data, digital technologies, remote patient monitoring, value-based payments, scientific discoveries, and consumer demands.