Smart Hospital Innovation with Intelligent Logistics Model: Samsung Medical Center

The current evaluation criteria for the Davies Award focus primarily on direct clinical outcomes achieved through services provided to patients. However, we propose to introduce a novel evaluation of indirect medical services within the emerging field of medical logistics. Medical logistics plays a crucial supporting role behind direct clinical services and is a key factor affecting personnel and resources. Though challenging to evaluate in terms of direct patient outcomes, logistical tasks can detract from the time healthcare providers spend on patient care. A recent survey of registered nurses in the United States identified time wasted on non-patient care activities, such as restocking supplies, as a major factor negatively impacting bedside care. Improving hospital inventory management can reduce logistics costs and the workload of healthcare staff, thereby improving the quality of patient care.

The global healthcare crisis posed by COVID-19 has led to resource burnout despite the dedicated efforts of caregivers. HIMSS has shown increasing interest in addressing medical-resource burnout, with a growing global demand to support caregivers. Various efforts are being undertaken to quantitatively measure caregiver burnout. HIMSS must propose new evaluation metrics to address this issue to enable more advanced IT-based medical services. Implementing an evaluation system for background services like logistics, as demonstrated in our case study, will be instrumental in reducing caregiver burnout and enhancing the quality of healthcare services.