Jason Young, an account manager for Samsung, draws a direct connection between digital displays in health care facilities and positive patient engagement.
“In my own experience as a patient, when I walk into a hospital — and I might be biased — but I look for technology,” he said. “When I walk in and see bulletin boards with a bunch stapled to it, I start to wonder: What does the operating room look like? How old is all this other equipment they’re going to be using on me?”
Young was one of the featured speakers for the smaller group sessions at PDS Connect 2017, where he proposed that Samsung can help hospitals upgrade their image, improve patient data management and save money by installing digital signage.
One of the key areas for improvement he identified was navigation within health care facilities, which often have complex layouts and little aid for people unfamiliar with how they’re laid out.
“It’s really like trying to navigate this maze of these buildings — especially if it’s a multi-complex building,” he said.
He argued that hospitals incur $220,000 in annual expenses on average for “wayfaring interruptions,” where a worker is pulled away from the task at hand to help someone else figure out where to go.
“I’m sure larger institutions have a bigger number than that,” he added.
He also discussed the possibilities for digital display boards within patient rooms. He noted they can integrate with electronic health records systems, screen mirror the physicians tablet to show patients and their families what’s being discussed, and even help patients with pre-procedure fears.
For example, if a patient has an MRI scan scheduled, the system will pull that information from the schedule and time an informational video to play before then, so the patient can get an idea of what to expect.
“So that way, actually patient anxiety levels can drop before they go into these exams or these tests, so they actually get somewhat of a more realistic, better reading,” he said.
Digital displays could also be used to show emergency messages in patient rooms, to ensure normally immobile patients know to stay put while they wait to be evacuated in case of a fire or some other issue.
Though he said the currently deployed alert systems are too early-stage to have good longevity studies quite yet, he noted that some are seeing the benefit in terms of reducing additional patient injury in emergency situations.
“You know, [patients] are on the home stretch and they get up and break something else and they’re in for a longer stay,” he said. “That’s a huge piece that sometimes doesn’t even get brought into consideration.”
–By Alex Moe
WisBusiness.com
