Defining the “Smart Hospital”: A Literature Review

Smart hospital grassroots date back to the late 20s when the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) started being adopted by the health sector to digitize its administrative processes. These technologies reduced mistakes, minimized the operational costs, and enhanced the efficiency of hospital management. The primary goal of the ICT utilization is to optimize healthcare delivery using modern data and technologies, improving safety, satisfaction, patient empowerment, clinical outcomes, and performance. Emerging ICT like big data analytics, artificial intelligence, IoT, cloud computing, 5G networks, and blockchain have enabled the integration and interoperability of various data sources and systems, enhancing the efficiency and quality of healthcare services. Moreover, these technologies introduced the terms smart health and smart hospital. The aim of this work in progress is to define smart hospital, explain its context and services, and distinguish it from other emerging approaches (agile, hybrid and green hospital) according to the literature review findings.