Smart Building Lighting for Healthcare and Hospital Environments
Improve patients sleep pattern, mood, and enhance their recovery time with a smart lighting system.
Modern technology, smart software and IoT devices create an improved environment that supports the needs of patients and staff, creating a truly human-centric space.
Aside from improving the experience for patients and boosting their recovery time, the integration of all technology, disparate systems and devices create one open ecosystem. This saves costs andtime, making hospitals, urgent care clinics and other healthcare facilities easier to manage and more accessible for relevant staff to control. As a result, it drives efficiencies, improves service and even creates a more sustainable building.
A successful healthcare and hospital facility rely on efficiency and timeliness, while supporting patient wellbeing and enabling staff to perform at their best. An innovative lighting solution which utilises smart building technologies can allow healthcare facilities to improve operational efficiency, better support staff and patients, and help create a safer and more comfortable space for recovery.
What are the advantages of smart building lighting solutions in hospitals?
Reduce energy consumption through lighting controls
Reinvest cost savings to enhance the healthcare environment
Simulate natural daylight to support patients’ sleep, mood, and recovery
Create a pleasant environment for patients and visitors
Enhance the wellbeing and concentration of hospital staff
SmartCore - a smart lighting system that transforms the patient care experience
It is essential for healthcare and hospital facilities to provide the best possible environment for patients to recover. Simply put, SmartCore creates smarter and healthier buildings
One of the main features of SmartCore is the ability to integrate with various lighting types, sensors, devices and systems creating a smart cohesive solution.
SmartCore has a focus on open, interoperable architecture that easily integrates with traditional infrastructure and modern, IoT ready tech. This is an essential feature in a building like a hospital where budgets are tight, and disruption needs to be kept to a minimum.
SmartCore’s advanced circadian lighting feature supports human biological cycles the same way as natural light. Circadian lighting is proven to make people both healthier and happier.
Why use circadian lighting in hospitals?
Research has proven that there is a clear relationship between lighting and health. The right lighting can promote calmness, reduce feelings of lethargy, maintain your sleep-wake cycle, and has even been linked to an improved immune system.
Research has linked a healthy circadian rhythm to an improved immune system: ‘circadian disruption dampens your immune system and makes a virus harder to defeat' (Lisa Health N/A). In addition, a healthy circadian rhythm can aid with the rehabilitation of certain medical conditions e.g. brain injuries (William D.S. K et. al. 2020).
It is also widely noted that having a circadian rhythm that is in sync can reduce the risk of developing certain medical conditions (such as diabetes and depression).
What is a Smart Hospital?
Any building can be made smart, but a connected, smart hospital can dramatically save costs, reduce emissions, can improve wayfinding, resource utilisation and create the relaxed environment needed for recovery. Sensors, other IoT, and smart management systems can integrate to create a unified solution that collects and transfers data, dramatically improving insight.
NHS Scotland began an IoT pilot project at Caithness General Hospital, part of the NHS Highlands trust, in 2018. They started using IoT-enabled hospital beds. The beds are equipped with Bluetooth sensors, enabling them to relay information about their location and maintenance records. It's hoped the six-month trial will save NHS staff time on tracking down individual beds and calling up their maintenance data (Best 2018).
Building on this concept, other hospitals have begun implementing "smart beds" to detect when they are occupied, when a patient is attempting to get up, sending this information over the network/internet to nurses. The beds can also self-adjust to ensure that appropriate pressure and support are applied to the patient without being manually adjusted by the nurses (Borelli E, Paolini G, Antoniazzi F, et al. 2019).
"Data saves lives. More effective use of data will deliver better patient-focused care. It will free up staff time to focus on patients and allow clinicians to make better, more informed decisions on treatment and support," said now-former Health and Social Care Secretary, Matt Hancock (Memoori 2021).
Digital Health magazine discusses the benefit of continually monitoring patient conditions and symptoms. One of the challenges physicians face is keeping patients aware of their conditions and cultivating healthy habits that keep them in check. However, a range of wearable and household devices such as a smartwatch could help patients manage their diabetes, hypertension, and other chronic conditions because they can assist patients in monitoring their vitals on a regular basis, encouraging them to take greater ownership of their health. However, the real power of connected medical devices is the ability to extract meaningful insights that lead to quicker and clearer diagnoses (Digital Health, 2019).
Sign-up to our newsletter to receive your FREE circadian lighting in the Healthcare environment research report: