{"name":"HospitalRoom.org Frameworks","description":"Machine-readable working models published by HospitalRoom.org for evaluating hospital rooms, products, and designs. Working definitions, not published standards.","url":"https://hospitalroom.org/frameworks","license":"CC BY 4.0","attribution":"Attribute 'HospitalRoom.org' with a link back to https://hospitalroom.org/frameworks","generated":"2026-09-15T19:52:13.423Z","version":"1.0","count":2,"frameworks":[{"slug":"four-capabilities","title":"Four capabilities of a connected hospital room","dek":"A working model for judging whether a room, product, or design is actually connected — sensing, integration, automation, and communication.","updated":"2026-08-26","url":"https://hospitalroom.org/frameworks/four-capabilities","takeaways":["A connected room is defined by four capabilities: sensing, integration, automation, and communication.","A room does not need all four to be useful; rooms clinicians describe as helpful usually combine at least three.","Amenities (TV, lighting scenes, voice assistants) are not a fifth capability. They are experience, not clinical infrastructure.","The model is for evaluation. The right question is what leaves the room, and how — not how many devices are in it."],"capabilities":[{"id":"sensing","name":"Sensing","definition":"The room notices the patient, the people in it, and the environment — continuous vitals, load-cell beds, computer vision, RTLS badges, and environmental sensors.","question":"Does the room generate a continuous, timestamped signal about the patient or environment?","relatedGuideSlugs":["how-patient-monitoring-works","fall-detection","rtls-in-hospitals"]},{"id":"integration","name":"Integration","definition":"What the room notices can move into clinical systems without anyone retyping it — HL7 v2, FHIR, IEEE 11073, interface engines and middleware. A monitor that cannot chart is a sensor, not a connected room.","question":"Does that signal reach the EHR or middleware without a human retyping it?","relatedGuideSlugs":["medical-device-integration","ehr-integration-patterns","healthcare-interoperability"]},{"id":"automation","name":"Automation","definition":"Rules or models turn data into action: alarm routing, early-warning scores, bed-exit prompts, rounding tasks. Automation without integration simply becomes another alarm.","question":"Does a rule or model act on it without adding non-actionable noise?","relatedGuideSlugs":["alarm-management-standards","early-warning-scores-explained","sepsis-early-warning"]},{"id":"communication","name":"Communication","definition":"The right person is reached on the right device, with enough context to act — nurse call as a routing platform, digital whiteboards, virtual-nursing endpoints, secure messaging.","question":"Does the action reach the responsible clinician, with enough context to act?","relatedGuideSlugs":["how-nurse-call-systems-work","virtual-nursing-explained","digital-whiteboards"]}],"workingRule":"Three of four is the practical bar for calling a room connected. One of four is a device. Four of four with no workflow minutes returned to the care team is still a failed installation."},{"slug":"virtual-nursing-readiness","title":"Five conditions for virtual nursing room readiness","dek":"A working checklist for whether an inpatient room — and the program behind it — is ready for a remote nurse to join the bedside usefully.","updated":"2026-09-07","url":"https://hospitalroom.org/frameworks/virtual-nursing-readiness","takeaways":["Virtual nursing fails more often on workflow and governance than on camera quality.","Five conditions must be judged together: endpoint, network, workflow, integration, and governance.","A room with a camera and no task hand-off is a video visit, not a virtual nursing program.","The model is for evaluation. Mark Present / Partial / Absent and name the owner — do not score or rank vendors."],"capabilities":[{"id":"endpoint","name":"Endpoint","definition":"A fixed, clinical-grade audiovisual presence in the room — camera, display, microphone, and speakers that patients and bedside staff can use without a consumer laptop cart.","question":"Can a remote nurse see, hear, and be seen/heard clearly from the patient and caregiver zones without improvising hardware?","relatedGuideSlugs":["virtual-nursing-explained","digital-whiteboards","patient-room-design"]},{"id":"network","name":"Network","definition":"Predictable bandwidth, latency, and reliability for continuous two-way AV — preferably wired or QoS-protected Wi-Fi, with a known degraded mode when the link fails.","question":"Does the room keep a usable two-way session through a busy shift, and is there a documented fallback when the link drops?","relatedGuideSlugs":["hospital-wifi","cybersecurity-medical-devices"]},{"id":"workflow","name":"Workflow","definition":"An explicit split of work between bedside and virtual nurse — typically admission interviews, discharge education, medication reconciliation, and secondary review — so the endpoint is not a redundant meeting.","question":"Are specific tasks assigned to the virtual nurse, with a hand-off the bedside team actually uses at night as well as at noon?","relatedGuideSlugs":["virtual-nursing-explained","how-nurse-call-systems-work"]},{"id":"integration","name":"Integration","definition":"The virtual nurse can reach the chart, document in the same record, and escalate into the room's nurse-call / messaging path without asking someone to retype or relay.","question":"Can the remote nurse chart, review orders, and escalate into the room's communication stack without a human relay?","relatedGuideSlugs":["ehr-integration-patterns","how-nurse-call-systems-work","medical-device-integration"]},{"id":"governance","name":"Governance","definition":"Licensure, consent and recording policy, privacy indicators when AV is live, and a staffing model framed as assist — not FTE replacement — consistent with telehealth nursing guidance.","question":"Are licensure, consent/recording, privacy indicators, and the assist-model staffing rules written down and enforceable across sites?","relatedGuideSlugs":["hipaa-basics","privacy-basics","virtual-nursing-explained"]}],"workingRule":"Endpoint and workflow must both be at least Partial before calling a room virtual-nursing ready. A camera alone is a video visit. All five Present with no minutes returned to the bedside team is still a failed program."}]}