The new, IT-laden, $485 million, 300-bed El Camino Hospital, in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, has been in the planning for six years and under construction for three years.

Hospital leaders are slated to formally open the doors of their “smart” hospital to the community on Oct. 3.

The hospital has been open for the last phase of occupying a building, what CIO Greg Walton calls the “fit-up.”

From an IT perspective, it means checking on the network, the devices and testing the applications.

It also means orienting employees, deploying equipment and testing it – all in preparation for caring for patients.

While leaders are showing off the new facility on Oct. 3, the official move begins on Nov. 1, with patients due to move in on Nov. 15.

There is a team, led by Lynn Fuller, a nurse, whose mission is to make sure every nurse and doctor is comfortable with new workflow, processes and technology.

To that end, the team has conducted hospital orientation, mock drills, virtual tours and department-specific training in mock patient rooms in every department.

“It’s absolutely huge,” said Fuller.

It’s all part of the plan that Diana Russell, a nurse and vice president of patient care
services, devised for getting physicians, nurses, staff and patients ready.

A task log – with more than 600 tasks identified by groups – keeps everyone “on task,” Fuller said.

There are plenty of details for everyone to handle, Walton said, and there are also more than the usual number of foundation events and parties to squeeze into the schedule – all in anticipation of the big move.

There’s a computer at every bedside, Walton notes, and a TV monitor that serves the patient not only for entertainment, but also as a second computer for education and to provide the patient with pertinent healthcare information. Eventually, he said, the hospital might introduce Skype, a software application that would enable video conferencing with the patient’s family and friends across the country.

The computer at the bedside was designed with the patient in mind, making it possible for nurses to spend more time with patients rather than at a nurses’ station.

“A nurse’s life will be a lot different,” Fuller said.

Among the new technologies that are part of the new hospital are:

• biometric patient identification (palm-scanning);
• digital signs and art;
• medical-grade bedside computers that allow real-time medical record processing;
• “smart” beds and electronic ceiling lifts;
• new radiology equipment; and
• faster, more reliable elevators with advanced earthquake safety and ‘code blue’ capabilities.

The hospitals’ enterprise healthcare system includes technology from Eclipsys, Medicity and Microsoft (Amalga).

There is also a nurse call system called Vocera.

“We’re making sure that all the pieces work together,” Walton said. “The amount of electronics is staggering. It’s also exciting because there are new things to work with like robots.”

The 12 robots move linens, pharmaceuticals, supplies and food – “and they’re cost-effective,” Walton said.

El Camino’s “smart OR” includes a panoramic tour of America. More to the point, surgeons can see the status of patients as they move through the OR.

“This hospital will be born smart,” Walton said, “but it won’t be born mature. We’ve got to figure out how to make everyone comfortable.”