ATLANTA – Cox Communications commissioned a survey of US-based hospital executives to understand their perceptions and adoption of smart hospital trends and technologies. Key findings illuminated how hospitals plan to invest over the next two years both operationally and clinically.

Hospitals are under immense pressure to increase efficiencies while being faced with staff shortages and more dynamic patient expectations. In the operations space, the top investments healthcare leaders plan to make over the next two years include:

As for clinical investments, artificial intelligence (Al) & machine learning (ML) tools (57 percent) and virtual care platforms (53 percent) scored best for investment within the next two years. Consumer facing technology like ChatGPT has brought AI recognition and credibility among the general population, and hospitals are looking to leverage the automation and savings of AI.

Smart Hospital solutions within the Cox healthcare portfolio can relieve pressure by realizing the tremendous benefits of new digital technology. These benefits have needle-moving impact for staff, prospective patients and payer networks. Eighty-four percent of hospital executives said these initiatives have a strong or positive impact on attracting and retaining clinical staff. Additionally, 74 percent said these initiatives have a strong or positive impact on attracting new patients and payer networks.

Half (50 percent) of the survey participants plan to invest in cloud within the next two years, in addition to the 43 percent currently investing. The explosion of data and AI created by exponentially increasing demand means the cloud is even more essential. RapidScale's cloud solutions empower healthcare businesses of every size to improve doctor-patient connections and enable secure data sharing. To bring compute closer to where data is created, CoxEdge provides cloud services from local proximity data centers near clinical facilities and the patient's home.

Sixty percent of hospital executives are planning to invest in private and public 5G networks within the next two years. Cox Private Networks uses both LTE/5G and fixed wireless access, creating customized solutions tailored for healthcare that not only meet the need for speed but also address latency, security and stability.

Sixty percent of respondents said RTLS is a very important aspect of a smart hospital, and 10 percent emphasize it is the most important investment hospital leadership can make. Cox Prosight is designed to streamline and modernize hospital operations and patient experiences through RTLS: improving the ability to quickly find medical devices, creating safer spaces through location tracking that automatically alerts security teams, even helping visitors to easily find their way through a complex hospital campus.

The combined capabilities of a partner like Cox provide an experienced ally to lead the transformation journey, bringing together the necessary IoT solutions for indoor and outdoor problem solving. Cox connects all unique environments to evolve digital experiences and provide easily accessible data to enhance decision making.

Read the full press release here.

Cox