The floor is so clever it knows when a visitor walks off with a wheelchair then alerts hospital security.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Hospitals deal with the same problems over and over.
Wheelchairs go missing, patients fall and so many alarms go off they're ignored.
Now there's a solution:
The smart floor.
This floor is so clever it knows when a visitor walks off with a wheelchair and alerts hospital security, so smart it knows when a patient hits the floor and it sends a message to the nearest aide's pager, so smart it knows when a doctor forgets to wash his hands and, over a hospital speaker system, gently reminds him and says thank you when he finally does.
It can also pinpoint on a map every defibrillator or other piece of equipment in a hospital and prevent that incessant beeping -- which leads to alarm fatigue -- by alerting nurses via text message when a patient who's likely to fall gets out of bed.
You can see the smart floor do all those things at Cleveland's new Global Center for Health Innovation.
The building so many people still call the med mart officially opens with an invitation-only ribbon-cutting on Tuesday, Oct. 8. But many tenants are still outfitting their spaces and won't open until later. That's the case for Forbo Flooring Systems and MedEyes Corp., the two companies partnering on what they call the Angel System. Their second-floor space is scheduled to open early next year.
When it does, visitors can play patient, doctor or nurse and see the floor in action.
"It's a total wow," says Denis Darragh, North American general manager for Forbo.
The 150-year-old Swiss company makes the floor.
And Atlanta-based MedEyes adds the brains.
Forbo has been selling durable, slip-resistant, naturally antimicrobial floors to schools, restaurants, hotels, hospitals and other institutions around the world for a century.
MedEyes was created 10 years ago when a group of former nurses, health care administrators and college professors came together to work on patient safety.
"We realized that for us to accurately do the things we wanted to do, especially with the fall aspect, our system had to be integrated into the floor," says MedEyes President Richard Davis. "We did some research worldwide and decided Fobor was the best fit for us."
MedEyes raises the patented flooring's IQ with a matrix of antennae planted on its underside, which picks up data -- from patient wrist bands, employee badges and equipment tags -- and sends it to computers, cell phones or other devices.
"The floor gives the location," Davis says. "And that data allows you to do a lot of things."
Hospitals can choose how it's reported.
A stolen wheelchair can signal a loud alarm or flashing light, for example.
A nursing home patient who walks into the wrong room might trigger a voice that says "Betty, this is not your room," then "Now you're in the right place" when she finds her way. And doctors who don't wash their hands every time they enter a room might be listed in a monthly written report.
Of course, there is the issue of hospital as Big Brother, watching every employee's move.
"I think there's always going to be that," Davis says. "But the Hippocratic oath says 'do no harm.' Just that gentle reminder shouldn't make anybody angry."
The only health facility using it so far is the Georgia War Veterans Home, a Milledgeville nursing home where the smart floor is preventing falls and making sure Alzheimer's patients don't wander.
"The reaction has been very good," Davis says. "And we have a few other installs that are pending. The problem is trying to catch people in the right construction cycle."
The floors, he points out, are most easily installed when a building first goes up.
Other uses for the smart floor are listed on the MedEyes website: in an emergency, hospital employees can locate patients and make sure every one of them is evacuated and stolen babies can be tracked.
"The main thing to keep in mind," Davis says, "is that our system is a platform that can be built upon."
Which is exactly what MedEyes and Forbo are doing.
One idea in the works is using the system to alert them to wet diapers in nursing homes. Left unchanged those diapers can cause bed sores and other problems.
Other ideas we may see in Cleveland?
"Nothing that's really ready to be discussed right now," Davis says. "But a lot of the new stuff we're working with will get tried there first."
"This," Darragh says, "is a chance to tell our story to people who will appreciate it."