There are three fundamental drivers at work in the healthcare industry today:
(i) the industry's slow and persistent march toward the goal of a full electronic health record,
(ii) the promise of increased workflow efficiency and
(iii) improved patient safety through IT adoption. These three forces drive nearly all IT decisions in hospitals today and have some profound capital and facility implications. This presentation will focus on key IT issues everyone involved with healthcare IT should be familiar with.

Data centers are a big deal! As hospitals continue the inevitable march toward a full electronic health record, the demands for storage are skyrocketing as increasing amounts of information is generated and stored digitally.
Demand for ultra high reliability access to the stored information is also soaring.

Healthcare IT demands more real estate. Proper IT in a hospital today requires significant square footage -- about 1% of the GBA just for the IT communications rooms throughout the hospital. This does not include the server room or data center.

IT spaces demand more reliable power and cooling. The amount of power needed in IT rooms has increased over the past several years. One reason for this is "Power over Ethernet" (POE). POE is used to power devices like IP phones, wireless access points, and other end user devices over the data cable through the network switch.

Nurse call isn't what it used to be. Simple code compliant nurse call systems are a thing of the past. The workflow advantages and increases in patient satisfaction and safety from improved nurse-patient communications compel most hospitals to invest in a more robust and feature rich nurse call system. Additionally nurse call systems are integrated with HIS systems which can help avoid duplication of data entry and fewer medical errors.

Don't confuse infrastructure with HIS systems. Hospital CIO's and IT staffs are focused on implementing significant HIS software as they strive to become fully digital in their documentation and record keeping. HIMSS Analytic's data suggests that less than 4% of hospitals today are even halfway toward achieving a true electronic health record and 0% have actually achieved it.

Don't let the "IT Guy" design the new hospital. Most hospital IT staffs are overworked and understaffed. They are tasked with keeping all existing equipment, networks, software and related technologies functioning on a day to day basis. The "IT Guy" simply doesn't have the time to commit to this process.

Audio-visual isn't just for PowerPoint. Healthcare has seen an explosion in the use of audio-visual technologies in recent years. Audio-visual technology has vastly improved the quality of information to clinicians resulting in better and more effective health decision making processes.

IT budgeting — this stuff is expensive. Few project managers or architects know how to properly budget for the IT needs of a new hospital project. Surprisingly, this is also true of the hospital IT staff. The GC's don't know how to do it either.

Online, real time, all the time. The bottom line is that IT systems in hospitals today are critical to providing clinical care. Today if these systems are down the hospital can no longer provide medical care. Think about this fact and the implications to hospital design and construction.
As clinician's become ever more dependent on IT to view images, communicate lab results, issue orders, document clinical information, generate a diagnosis, etc. it becomes a life critical business imperative that these systems be available "online, real time, all the time."