Standards in the healthcare sector

Your partner takes you to the hospital. Once you arrive in the underground car park, you transfer directly from your comfortable car seat to a hospital wheelchair [SN EN 12183:2022]. This feels unfamiliar and also changes your perspective. As you allow yourself to be pushed towards the entrance, you notice a green emergency exit sign [SN EN ISO 7010:2020] with a wheelchair symbol for the first time. You also notice that there are no thresholds up to the lift and that all doors [SN EN 16005+A1:2024] open automatically. "How well thought out," you think as you wait for the lift and watch the building services install a defibrillator [SN EN 60601-2-4:2011+A1:2019]. You are grateful that you are not admitted as an emergency despite the pain. You are greeted warmly at reception and given your patient wristband [ISO/TS 22220:2011].

You try to cover up your growing nervousness and talk to a patient. His diagnosis: black skin cancer. "I regret that I never used sun protection [SN EN ISO 24444:2020] and was too careless," he says thoughtfully. Suddenly, sirens wail. An emergency vehicle [SN EN 1789+A1:2024] pulls up. You can feel the hospital briefly go into a frenzy of activity. But the medical staff react as a well-coordinated team: calm, focused and professional [SN EN 15224:2017].

Finally, your doctor appears and calls you for an admission consultation. All your medical data is recorded in full in the electronic dossier [SN EN ISO 13606-1:2020]. To be on the safe side, your blood pressure [SN EN ISO 81060-1:2012] is measured again, your heart is monitored, blood is taken and any allergies to medication are clarified. The values are correct and a short time later the message comes from the in-house laboratory [SN EN ISO 15189:2022]: Everything is fine. As you have no further questions, you roll on to the next station.

Carefully prepared for the operation, you meet the anesthetist. He calmly explains the procedure to you and then induces the anesthetic. After just a few seconds, you will feel the anaesthetic taking effect. Half asleep, you notice that you are being wheeled into the operating theater, where the green-clad surgical team is already waiting for you. Then it goes dark and the ventilator [SN EN 60601-2-12:2006] takes over for you.

You only have vague memories of the recovery room. First and foremost, the constant beeping of the monitoring devices [SN EN 60601-2 family], which you otherwise only know from medical series. The monitors continuously display your vital signs and give you the reassuring feeling that someone would be at your bedside immediately in an emergency. Surprisingly, you don't feel the knee prosthesis [SN EN ISO 21536:2024] at all.

After a few days in hospital, you can look forward to being discharged. Once home, the work begins for you: regular physiotherapy and a daily exercise program. Together with the physiotherapy team, you will train on specially developed robotic equipment [SN EN ISO 13482:2014] that optimally supports your recovery. Thanks to your discipline and your good general condition, your recovery is progressing very quickly. When you are already able to work again at 50 %, you appreciate the ergonomic standing desk [SN EN ISO 9241-5:2024] at your workplace even more. It helps you to keep your knee moving.

Weeks later, you look back gratefully on your operation and the successful healing process. What you didn't realize at the time was that, in addition to a competent treatment team, a dense network of standards and safety guidelines accompanied you throughout your treatment.