Innovative tech powers smart room

The 75-inch Careboards help patients stay engaged in their care.

Image from Penn Medicine

The patient room of the future is already transforming the health care experience for patients at Penn Medicine, University of Pennsylvania (UP) in Philadelphia.

That interactive, technology-driven experience begins at the door of the intelligent patient rooms in Penn’s new patient facility, The Pavilion, a 500-bed, 1.5 million-square-foot facility on the UP campus. Instead of a whiteboard or sticky-note system, key information for providers entering the room is fed into a separate digital patient door display outside of each patient’s room.

On the wall opposite their bed, patients can access a digital footwall — a 75-inch screen, or “Careboard” — providing real-time communication, entertainment and other content from a single interface. The screen splits into multiple windows to display different sets of information most important to patients. 

From the comfort of their beds, patients can change the room temperature, raise the shades, order food, have a video chat with family members and consult with health care staff in real time, along with many other functions.

Ultimately, the goal is to leverage the innovative, interconnected technology to achieve higher levels of patient engagement and satisfaction and, above all, give patient control over their own health care experience. 

“Technology will make our clinician’s job easier and more efficient, and it will also make the patient’s communication with their family or their physicians much easier. That’s what I’m most excited about,” says Kathryn Gallagher, R.N., NE-BC, clinical liaison at PennFIRST, the team behind The Pavilion at Penn Medicine.

The low-voltage equipment is seamlessly integrated in the patient room and beyond to create a cohesive system that aligns patients, clinicians, IT and the hospital’s needs. 

Schneider Electric served as a technology consultant on the PennFIRST team throughout the design and construction of The Pavilion, reviewing the low-voltage systems and possible integrations to be designed and delivered in the new facility. 

“Schneider Electric works with health care systems like Penn Med to design labs where we’re able to test out health care innovations and system technologies,” says Warren Rosebraugh, director of buildings segment solutions.