--- title: Inside the Hospital Room of the Future description: Find out what inpatient care might look like by the year 2020 canonical: https://time.com/3833111/inside-hospital-room-future/ author: TIME Video article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-23T16:57:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:07:50.808Z article:section: Health og:title: Inside the Hospital Room of the Future og:description: Find out what inpatient care might look like by the year 2020 og:url: https://time.com/3833111/inside-hospital-room-future/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt42c55061a068e705/6987ec8c2dce0152fc9e175b/hospital.jpg?branch=production&width=834&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 834 og:image:height: 469 og:image:alt: hospital og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Inside the Hospital Room of the Future twitter:description: Find out what inpatient care might look like by the year 2020 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt42c55061a068e705/6987ec8c2dce0152fc9e175b/hospital.jpg?branch=production&width=834&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Inside the Hospital Room of the Future > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=52dd8095-58f9-4f5f-af8a-758f3383ea6c&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Inside the Hospital Room of the Future [Watch (HLS stream): Inside the Hospital Room of the Future](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/P97A4hyW.m3u8) (3:39)  _Published 2015-04-23. With built-in lighting control and smart TV integration, Patient Room 2020 is designed to show what the future of hospitals might look like._ by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Apr 23, 2015 4:57 PM UTC by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Apr 23, 2015 4:57 PM UTC ## Transcript We are sitting in patient room 2020 which is a look forward to where the patient might be in the year 2020. The space here is really to help facilitate the delivery of care, make it more streamlined, make it more efficient. I think when you look at patient rooms in the past sort of said they were the future, look at patient healthcare. It's a different color paint and different color flooring. This really takes a better look at where the industry's heading and it's really technologically driven. Ideally, you don't want to be in a hospital but if you find yourself in one you want to know that it's clean, you're being well taken care of, the environment is comfortable. One of the thing you notice right away is how wide open the bathroom is. And so in this case, rolling a wheelchair in where you have complete accessibility is important. And then, even the shower itself starts to be customizable. One of the big things is patient safety. So in the design of this space that was one of the major aspects we looked at. The floor that we're actually standing on has a computer mat underneath here and it can track your footsteps. So as a patient puts their feet on the ground, or in the unfortunate act that they might fall out of the bed, it immediately detects that and sends alarms back to the clinician workspace. The other great idea is the computer. The clinician comes in and brings down the board. And so you can sit here and do your entries, converse with the patient that's right here, and when this closes, the UV lights kill any kind of germs that might be present. And so this is the, really, the big customizable piece right here. We have lighting, but then it might have the future of computer systems, Wi- Fi is built into this system for your phones and for telemedicine and for future robotics and things like that that connect out. Into the hallway and, and back to the nurse stations. [ MUSIC ] This is the bedside table. This is really the patient's link to the entire room. This has a built- in iPad that connects you to this patient ribbon. Obviously do the simple things like nurse call. Connects you to the outside world through Skype and your television. Or things like a halo effect. For noise cancellation it goes over your head. If you think of all the dings and noises in a hospital, patient satisfaction rates is another thing that should go up. You can create your own mood. Patient can put it into a night mode that'll start dropping the lights down. This halo here is completely customizable. So you can start with a very bright space for doing an exam. Or it can go into a mode that you see passing clouds, or the blue sky. And this is also the link to the connectivity for clinicians as well. And you can see results. You can see your vitals. It's really about drawing in the patient and the outside world into ones experience that can be controlled right from the bed. It's almost empowering the patient I think, if you get beyond the techknowledgey and the different look. It's really empowering the patient to be more active in their health care, delivery of care, interact with clinicians a little bit easier. If you've ever spent time in a hospital either as a patient or as a visitor, one of the first things you look at is the cleanliness of it, and the lighting of the space. And I think this room here, the patient room 2020 really kinda changes that mood almost, of a patient. The basic core of this was to start a dialogue and to make change in the industry. If we even have one element in here that is incorporated into a hospital, that's a success. 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