If you’ve ever stayed in the hospital for an extended period of time, you know that being confined to a bed in a hospital room can be maddening. A recent Columbus Dispatch articlehighlights some of the emerging technology that will soon be installed in hospitals around the country. Hospital room TV’s will soon be replaced with high-tech, interactive monitors which will allow patients to choose their own programming, select on-demand content, as well as play video games.
The technology itself is nothing new. It operates much like the interface of a digital cable provider and has been around for about a decade. One of the major reasons hospitals have been lagging in incorporating these types of technology into their care is because they have only recently been given the incentive to focus on patient satisfaction. As the Dispatch article notes, Medicare polls patients to gauge their rate of satisfaction much like any other business sending a follow up email asking if you are satisfied with a product you have just purchased. Medicare then uses this data to determine funding for individual hospitals. That’s why only now are hospitals spending more money and energy on patient satisfaction. In other words, the investment in better entertainment technology could lead to a higher rate of patient satisfaction, causing the hospital to get better funding in the long run.
Experts not only predict an uptick in patient satisfaction, but also in education and self care. The entertainment systems will also be loaded will accessible medical information such as test results, x-rays, and other data which will serve to put care into the patient’s hands. They also provide information on taking care of your condition once discharged from the hospital.
While this may be a slow process, it’s definitely a step in the right direction in patient care. With many children’s hospitals already employing this technology, it’s high time patient happiness be brought to the forefront of the discussion on improving hospitals.
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