Your Health: Smart hospital rooms

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - More than 36 million people are admitted into hospitals in the United States every year. That’s an average of almost 100,000 people every day.

This comes as the country faces a nursing shortage. That’s where smart rooms come in.

“I was a gymnast growing up and I had jumped into a foam pit that I thought was deeper. Turned out to be really shallow,” said Matthew Edwards. “I kind of over-rotated and landed on my neck and fractured my vertebrae.”

Edwards has been confined to a hospital room for several months, but the room is giving him something he did not have before. The world’s first smart hospital rooms allow the patient to control everything from the lights, the temperature, the TV, the bed, the blinds and more.

“Every single piece of control that you give back to someone who’s lost it is really important for every aspect of their life,” said Dr. Jeffrey Rosenbluth.

“If I’m paralyzed and I’m going with my wheelchair up to the door, well, I can’t open the door by myself, but I can maybe talk to my device and say, ‘Hey, open the door,’” said Damaris Zarco.

Patients have complete control of their surroundings by using their voice, touch, breath, gaze or head movements.

One study found that implementing smart room technology reduced the time nurses spent on documentation by an average of 24 minutes per shift.

According to the Journal of Nursing Care, using smart room technology to automate dispensing of medication reduced errors by 78%.

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