The Grand Hôpital de Charleroi (Belgium), Care and Comfort and Clinifit – building the hospital of the future
The collaboration between the Grand Hôpital de Charleroi (GHDC), Care and Comfort and Clinifit is entering a new phase.
Having tested our multimedia terminals in three of its care units since 2012, the GHDC decided to take the plunge and fit all of its private rooms with Care and Comfort solutions.
A European first
However, the GHDC did not stop there, and as part of the refurbishment of its maternity unit, opted to introduce seven of the innovative rooms marketed by Clinifit, in which Care and Comfort is a shareholder, with Olivier Vercaemst, CEO of Care and Comfort, acting as its Chairman.
Improving efficacy of care and minimizing the impact on hospital cash-flow with interconnected devices
Truly innovative? These rooms offer amenities and technologies never before seen in the hospital setting. The uniqueness of this project also resides in the business planning solutions that we – in conjunction with our partner Econocom – provided for the GHDC: a room rental system, dispensing with the need for the hospital to make investments unconnected with its core business.
"In fact, for the same cost, financing rooms through a rental contract avoids negative cash-flow impact, as well as offering ease of access to the latest technologies. The flexibility of our rental contracts allows for upgrades to the room by providing for a technology update part-way through the contract. With this kind of project, the Grand Hôpital de Charleroi is redefining quality care standards and ultimately, significantly enhancing its appeal." says Philippe-Hervé Hoffmann, Country Manager for Econocom Benelux.
As a pioneering European model of the innovative hospital, the GHDC won the ‘Digital Patient’ award for 2014 at a conference in Namur, Belgium, attended by over 250 health care decision-makers.
The GHDC is already considering the innovations that it might adopt for the new hospital to be built on the Viviers site in Charleroi by 2020-2022.
Key figures:
2012: Test project: 55 patient bedside terminals.
- Installed in surgical and oncology care units.
- 2013-2015: Project to roll out 800-900 terminals in the vast majority of care units.
- 2014: Seven innovative rooms installed in the new maternity unit.
TESTIMONY
Pierre Jacmin, Director of the GHDC’s Information Technology and Systems department, explains:
"The main barrier to the innovative room was not financial, as we had the budget to refurbish the care units and there was no great difference in cost between an innovative room and a traditional room. The main obstacle was having the courage to embark on this type of project."
Source : vidéo youtube
TESTIMONY
Brigitte MAILLET, Nurse Manager at the GHDC shares her experience:
3Overall, we’ve seen a calmer atmosphere amongst patients in the two pilot care units. The patient bedside terminal is also intended to provide nurses, physicians and paramedics with easy access to information in the patient’s medical records. Ultimately, the day-to-day experience of both patients and nursing staff should improve.3
Source : Fiche Econocom
Presenting the stakeholders in the project:
The GHDC is the largest private hospital in the Wallonia region of Belgium. It employs over 4,500 staff across five hospital sites. Capacity: 1,124 beds
Care and Comfort is the Scotler Group’s medical multimedia brand, based in Northern France and a specialist in IT for residential and health care. It has Microsoft Gold Partner status and bases its solutions on Microsoft platforms for complete integration with hospital IT systems (www.care-and-comfort.com )
Clinifit is a French simplified joint stock company (Société par Actions Simplifiée) comprising eight small and medium-sized enterprises (including Care and Comfort). The Clinifit open ecosystem provides its clients with comprehensive solutions that draw on skills in the organization of care, hospital strategy, and medical fittings and equipment. These areas of expertise combine to form Clinifit’s two lines of business, “organization & results” and “fittings & equipment”. (www.clinifit.eu)
The aim of the Econocom Osiatis Group’s vertical approach to the health care market is to develop a better understanding of its challenges and constraints, to further increase the relevance of the expertise that Econocom has developed up to now as a general digital services company. (www.econocom.com)
TESTIMONY
Gauthier Saelens, Chief Executive Officer of the GHDC, explains:
"Eighteen months ago, we saw an exhibition model in Lille and wanted to test the concept in our hospital. Of course, everything was tailored to fit the available floor space and Belgium’s slightly different electrical safety standards. The very first patients to use these rooms were admitted a fortnight ago and left very happy with their experience."
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