By HFT Staff

Essentia Health is utilizing new technology to enhance the patient and visitor experience at its St. Mary’s Medical Center in Minnesota. 

The upgraded facility is expected to open in the third quarter and will replace the current St. Mary’s Medical Center. The $900 million focuses on patients and their families through state-of-the-art features including: 

• An education and entertainment system in each private patient room, providing more than 100 new-release movies and TV shows, 50 channels of live television, the ability to stream concerts and worship services and options to cast from a smartphone. The system will also allow patients to order food, view members of their care team and request assistance. 
• Digital wayfinding will make it easier to navigate the facility. When patients enter the hospital, they will find a wayfinding kiosk. With the help of an app, patients and visitors can navigate the hospital and be provided with step-by-step instructions on how to get to their destination. The kiosk will also show instructions for those who choose not to download the app. 
• Elevators throughout the facility will make patient transport easier and quicker. Instead of “up or down” options, the hospital’s public elevators will have a tablet that ask you to select a floor. It then schedules an elevator that will get you to the floor in the most efficient manner. In addition, people will have the ability to commandeer an elevator so it can be used only by staff in certain situations. 
• All refrigerators that store temperature-controlled items will be equipped with advanced temperature and humidity tracking system to ensure they are kept within a specified climate needed to remain viable. The system will send out notifications if the temperatures go outside a specific range. 
• The new hospital will also use radio-frequency identification (RFID) tracking to ensure the safe transfers of blood, tissue and medicines that require chain-of-custody documentation.