Heartbeat: Technology, Innovation and Midland Met

June 15, 2021

With all eyes fixed firmly on 2022 and the opening of the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH), we decided to take a closer look at what part technology will play in our new acute healthcare facility.

Innovation is at the heart of MMUH and technology will play a crucial role in almost every aspect of our new hospital. We will have everything from our existing electronic patient record to using robots to help us deliver streamlined care.

Whilst integrating such far-reaching technology into MMUH may seem like a daunting task, luckily for us, we have a team of tech experts who are taking the lead on shaping some of the new technology we’ll soon be able to use. We caught up with Mark Taylor, Informatics Associate and Richard Molloy, Construction Specialist, to find out more.

Mark told us: “Midland Met will bring both change and opportunities. It will boost regeneration in the area, and the hospital itself has been carefully designed to enhance the patient experience. For my part, I work in informatics and we’ve not undertaken a project of this size before, so it’s a big project to be involved with. We all have a role to play in bringing Midland Met to life.

“Having the right technology in place is essential for a build of this magnitude. Everyone is working together to ensure everything is joined up, from the Wi-Fi we will use to what types of technology we will install to make the patient experience smoother.

“One of the things we will be introducing is a modern nurse call system. Our new system will play an integral part in the treatment and care we deliver. One of the key features it offers is allowing for remote communication between colleagues and patients in specific rooms and areas. It means a patient can speak to a nurse at the touch of a button without leaving their room.”

Mark continued: “As you’d expect, we’ll be placing a lot of emphasis on getting the Wi-Fi spot on. People have come to expect a good Wi-Fi connection as standard and, rightly so. Communicating with your loved ones whilst you’re in a hospital setting is essential if you’re a patient. From a staff perspective, it’s equally important as we rely on good Wi-Fi for all of the systems we use across all areas.

“One of the other things we’ll be introducing is using our Wi-Fi to enable bed side medical devices to send information to clinical systems to save entering data manually. It’s all of these extra functions that will help us to work more efficiently.”

Richard shared one of the most anticipated elements of our new hospital will be our new robots or automated guided vehicles to give them their full name. He told us: “When you say you’ll be using robots, most people imagine something out of a movie like Johnny 5. As exciting a prospect as that is, we’ll be using something more practical and technologically advanced.

“Our robots will work behind the scenes, patients will never see them, but they will play a vital role in getting goods and medicines to different areas. The robots have lots of scope in terms of what we might use them for, and they can hold up to 500kg and will quietly weave their way around corridors using a combination of Wi-Fi, location tracking , GPS and location sensors, leaving staff with more time to focus on delivering patient care.”

Richard added: “MMUH is set to be one of the most technologically advanced hospitals in the region, if not the UK and will provide state-of-the-art integrated care for patients. That is why so much emphasis is on the technology we will use to help us best meet patient and staff needs.

“Some of the other things you can look forward to are an updated bleep system that will work using smartphones. We will have modern CCTV throughout, plus a cutting edge building management system to monitor and manage our mechanical and electrical systems. We’ll also be introducing solar panels on the roof at level ten and non-touch sensors for access and doors.”