One of the most complex challenges facing large general hospital centers is managing medical beds to reduce patient admission and medical discharge waiting times. To collaborate with this initiative, the government announced today the launch of an innovation challenge within the framework of the innovative public procurement program, which will have the Las Higueras de Talcahuano Hospital as a pilot.
Economy Minister Nicholas Grau; Executive Vice President of Corfo, José Miguel Benavente and Director of INAPI Loreto Breschi, They are Dr. Visit the hospital led by Patricia Sánchez to present four R&D developers who will reduce waiting times and make patient management more efficient in the renovated health center and use artificial intelligence and technology. High performance software for admission management and allocation of beds and medical discharges.
The public procurement challenge occurs in the context of the modernization of the Los Higueras Regional Hospital in Dalcahuano, associated with the normalization program for public hospitals that began in 1999, which consists of three stages that attempt to close the gap in user comfort, safety and dignity. of these institutions. The initiative involved the commitment of three governments and allowed for substantial improvement in patient care at three levels. The hospital was replaced by a new facility thanks to an investment process that involved the work of three successive governments.
Minister Grau said, “Daring to innovate is very important because, in this case, it allows us to start the so-called public procurement for innovation, in addition, we were able to approve it as a bill in 2023. This will make it possible to mobilize resources from the public sector, so that we have more innovation in our country, And more important than innovation is solving problems like managing complex beds, providing care as quickly as possible and with quality to people who “have some health problem.”
Challenge
Corfo's executive vice president, José Miguel Benavente, said that public procurement through the innovation challenge is an unprecedented policy in Chile and that the R&D challenge itself is key to the award system, adding, “What we do is support entrepreneurs. In terms of need, these developers can provide a solution and as entrepreneurs they can provide a solution.
“From a general perspective, it will no longer be just hospitals, but other organizations that will access these knowledge-based solutions and solve the problems involved in an innovative way,” he said. Benavente praised Las Higueras Hospital for “defining the problem very clearly” and making it possible to use this public procurement pilot with Corfo resources for the first time.
Similarly, Loreto Breschi, director of INAPI, highlighted the intellectual property strategy undertaken by each of these projects and invited challenge participants to incorporate it into their business plans. “This piloting has an important value in defining the problem, in presenting the solution to advance innovative efforts, always considering intellectual property from the first moment,” explained Bresky.
The director of the hospital Los Higueras, Patricia Sánchez, said, “This initiative responds to the request of this hospital, which is experienced in innovation, because we have formalized the processes along that path. With 55 years of experience, at Las Higueras, we want to solve our patients' problems with emergency and hospitalization time through innovative solutions such as telemedicine, social work and creativity.”
Competing plans
The projects in the race are GESCA+ -Artificial Intelligence for Bed Allocation-, an initiative that uses artificial intelligence (AI)-based algorithms to manage allocation of hospital beds and transfer of patients. Its mission is to improve processes and deliverables and allocation of resources to improve user and patient experience.
LAHUEN HEALTH SPA, a Hospital and Discharge Monitoring Platform (PMH) for real-time management of patient transfers and discharges, is the second of the projects and uses messaging systems such as SMS or WhatsApp – among other tools. Monitor patient movements in real time. In this way, the platform generates alerts or recommendations for patient care teams.
IOT Medical Tracker: People Management and Monitoring, meanwhile, is a software aimed at managing waiting times in hospital facilities through “task management” and people tracking – or tracking. The system will allow optimization of allocation of beds in case of medical evacuation, it will use mechanisms such as monitoring of staff and patients and providing notifications via mobile.
INNERCORE SPA PROJECT INNERCORE SPA is dedicated to managing medical beds, which will act as an online platform to reduce waiting times and hospital admissions during emergencies. Medical beds. This will be done by monitoring the occurrence of events affecting the occupancy or release of emergency room or hospital beds.
The plans that made their pitches at the hospital today before officials will compete to speed up the cycle of transferring patients from emergency room to hospital services and are part of an innovative public procurement pilot in which Los Higures Hospital collaborated. , Ministry of Economy, National Institute of Industrial Property (INAB), Corfu, Ministry of Finance, Cilicombra, Government Laboratory, Ministry of Science and National Institute of Research and Development (ANID).
Led by the Ministry of Economy and part of the Sustainable Product Development Program (DSP) funded by Korfo, the initiative provides co-financing of up to 80% of the total cost in Stage 1. Up to $30,000,000 (8 months); At Level 2, up to 80% of total cost, cap $60,000,000 (8 months). After the first phase, 3 finalists will pass and after the full testing and competition period, the hospital buys the best Bicon in the year 2025 (estimated date).
The normalization of Las Higuaras
In 2005, the work of the High Complexity Ambulatory Care Center (CAAC) began as a way to prioritize the care of the people of Dalcahuano, Hualpen, Benco and Dom. At this stage, the modification of the space worthy of the attention of internal and external users, the extension of the offer of hours and the integration of services such as endoscopic procedures and digitization of hospital work were considered. In 2007, this first building with high standard of quality Dr. Presented with the name Justo Ulloa Acuna.
The center tripled the original spaces of open care, reaching a useful surface of more than 15,000 M2 and an investment of more than $9,000 million, today with new spaces for procedures and exams and the extension of digitalization of care, procedures and services. .
