Hospitals have well-set policies and procedures such as NABH, the standard provides a framework for quality assurance for hospitals. focusing on patient safety and quality of care.
The standards call for continuous monitoring of events and a comprehensive corrective action plan leading to the building of quality culture at all levels and across all the functions. Currently, all such inspections are done manually. However, Covid 19 pushed the need to automate meticulous daily checks with detailed monitoring of the hospital’s infrastructure, equipment, patient care, and safety compliance.
As per the Supreme court of India order in 2020, it directed all states to install CCTV monitoring in all wards of covid hospitals to ensure proper care of patients is taken, while many healthcare institutions use video surveillance to monitor their facilities, but we still hear of incidents at hospitals
Let’s visit some real-time cases.
- In 2019, a malicious insider leaked the personal data of thousands of HIV patients in Singapore.
- Several patients complained of lack of care and attention after being admitted to hospitals.
- The recent fire outbreaks at Indian hospitals due to stress on electrical wiring.
The healthcare sector is data and time-sensitive and cannot afford these kinds of disruptions. AI can play a crucial role in anticipating and warding off security, safety threats.
Hospitals can use the video surveillance infrastructure to analyze compliance standards by integrating AI Visual inspection automation platform leveraging computer vision.
Real-time detection of objects, events, incidents in the video, raising the necessary alerts, and classify the metadata, this data can then be used to derive patterns and operational intelligence.
For instance, when data is collected over time, hospitals could use it to understand visitor and patient traffic within the facility, unauthorized access of restricted areas, proactive safety, nursing frequency, and much more.
Below we have tried to explain some of the crucial use cases of Intelligent Video Analysis for Hospital:
1. Monitors Fire-Prone Zones/Thermal temperature
Fire is a devastating hazard that leads to immense loss of life and property. Oxygen levels inside ICU are high which becomes fuel for the fire (in case of spark). It is a closed premise so ventilation is limited. Due to the overload A.C also runs 24×7 so all electrical connections generally are having significant heat.
Fire detection usually is being done through smoke alarms. Current solutions Sprinkler system, Fire Extinguisher, Fire Alarm system – All work once the fire is detected.
With the help of AI and deep learning, fire-prone zones can be monitored remotely detecting patterns, trends, and anomalies analyzing video from CCTV surveillance such as detecting smoke. Electrical hazards can be detected using sensors that can gauge the temperature of switchboards and wirings. This can trigger a reduction in power and an automated alert is sent to the operation manager for event detection to take timely action thus help prevent any mishaps in sensitive areas like the ICU.
2. Smart Hospital Building Maintenance
A hospital building must be fully functional and must adhere to all safety and risk and disaster-ready parameters. The maintenance work would extend to repair, cleaning, and regular inspections of servicing of A.C (indoor & outdoor), Sprinklers, Electrical boards, which can be quite challenging and may often get overlooked.
The power of artificial intelligence can help detect frequency in routine maintenance work to ensure timely maintenance is carried out at the hospitals, record the instances of compliance and non-compliance and same can be notified to staff to take action, thus focusing on preventive mechanisms.
3. Patient Care Monitoring
Patient health is the most critical KPI for hospitals, and they do everything to ensure the patient is well cared for, despite which incidents happen.
With the help of AI, real-time monitoring of patient wellbeing can be ensured, and any untoward incidents can be tracked in cases like:
- The eventuality of the patient falling down
- Patient Nursing – Attendant Frequency – How many times a patient has been attended to in the ICU ward by the nurse
- Detect any misbehavior with patients from Hospital staff
- Automated compliance monitoring of patient room cleanliness
Having these checks and balances will enable hospitals to ensure the safety and wellness of the patients and increase patient satisfaction.
4. Asset Tracking Solutions
Hospitals have critical lifesaving equipment that needs to be stored appropriately. With thousands of people walking into hospitals daily, there is always the possibility of misuse of equipment or damage to equipment.
AI can detect unauthorized use by analyzing the camera feeds from across all floors and zones. An automated alert with proof can be sent to the security manager to take appropriate action.
5. Workplace Safety
Even in a pandemic situation, hospitals need to ensure the continuity of work and put workplace safety protocols in place. Visual AI or computer vision (CV) can be the solution to monitor and implement workplace safety rules. Some significant concerns that can be addressed include:
- Monitoring that PPE kits are worn properly wherever required
- Tracking and monitoring the gathering and movement of people to ensure social distancing
Conclusion
AI is being used to dramatically improve diagnostics, patient care, and clinical decision support across the medical field.
As per a report by Wired, it is estimated that industry spending on such technologies is set to reach more than $2 billion in the next five years. AI and computer vision is playing a significant role in protecting the systems that care for our health and wellbeing.
AIVID Platform enables healthcare centers to automate repetitive yet critical inspections and improve SOPs consistently, AIVID BOTS work round the clock monitoring activity and automate the generation of the inspection report with all proof of non-compliance. Notifies relevant safety officers in case of abnormality.
With AIVID, hospitals can get proactive Safety and Security, to know more on the product you can reach at info@aividtechvision.com