The hospital of tomorrow: patient-centric

The hospital of the future is designed to put the patient experience at the center of everything we do.
Whether it’s organizational or technological innovations, since 2016, the Institut Français de l’Expérience Patient (IFEP) has been committed to making the patient experience a priority.
It works to transform today’s hospitals into more welcoming spaces for tomorrow’s patients, becoming a key player in the reorganization of the healthcare system.
This not only improves professional practices, but also communication between patients and facilities.
The hospital of tomorrow rests on five essential pillars.

Let’s take a look at how these elements are transforming the world of healthcare.

Safety

Tomorrow’s hospital is designed first and foremost for patient safety and well-being.
In the event of an emergency, such as a fire or other major incident, advanced protection systems ensure rapid and safe evacuation.
Resistant materials, such as fire-resistant concrete and reinforced steel, ensure the solidity of the buildings.
What’s more, continuous monitoring enables us to react quickly to risks, providing patients with an environment where care can continue uninterrupted, whatever happens.

Fluidity

Safety is a fundamental aspect of the hospital experience, but the fluidity of the is just as crucial.
Modern hospitals strive to optimize every step to improve patient care.
According to OECD data in 2017, the average for member countries was 4.7 hospital beds per 1,000 inhabitants, with significant variations between countries.
While there is no universal consensus, some experts suggest that a target of 5 beds per 1,000 inhabitants could ensure adequate capacity for both acute and long-term care.

In the most advanced facilities, such as the Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH) in Singapore, patients are greeted in a personalized way and quickly informed of the stages in their care.
Real-time display of waiting times, an increasingly widespread practice, helps reduce anxiety.
Personalized care plans and digital access to test results via secure IT systems are becoming the norm, promoting smoother continuity of care.

Attracting talent

To guarantee an optimal patient experience and seamless continuity of care, it is crucial to attract young talent to the hospital sector.
Modern hospitals are positioning themselves as dynamic and innovative work environments, capable of attracting new generations of healthcare professionals.

Investment in state-of-the-art infrastructures and advanced technologies plays a key role in this attractiveness strategy.
A concrete example of this modernization is the growing adoption of sophisticated health information systems (HIS).
In France, the HOP’EN (Hôpital numérique ouvert sur son environnement) program is a perfect illustration of this trend.
According to the Weliom website, this program, with a budget of 420 million euros for the period 2019-2022, aims to modernize hospital information systems.

Innovation

In this context, innovation is positioning itself as a key driver of transformation.
Hospitals are becoming veritable think tanks, where artificial intelligence, telemedicine and connected health applications are redefining medical practices.
The study French PArADIsElaunched in September 2024 and conducted by the CHRU de Nancy in collaboration with several healthcare establishments, illustrates this dynamic by using an automatic language processing algorithm to identify patients suffering from acute dyspnea.
This research highlights how these advanced technologies are helping to improve the quality of care while optimizing patient pathways.

And what about patients?

In tomorrow’s hospital, patients will be at the center of attention, with their voices and needs listened to at every stage of their journey, with an emphasis on their mental state.
Hospitals will encourage their active participation in healthcare decisions.
Through satisfaction surveys, personalized follow-up and the inclusion of their perspective in quality assessments by the French National Authority for Health (HAS)