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Inpatients soon will have more entertainment options and information about BWH at their fingertips, thanks to a new television system being rolled out across the hospital this spring.
“The new system will provide all inpatients with better entertainment, including free on-demand movies, better channel selection, music and games,” said Administrative Director of Support Services Jennifer Nadelson. “We also can feature information about BWH, including announcements, maps, Gift Shop hours, Chaplaincy services, local restaurants and hotels and more.”
Patients will be able to access a free movie package of about 30 movies at a time—recently released movies not yet out on DVD. There are also free games including solitaire, black jack and video poker and a music package offering three genres of music. Patients can make selections and control the televisions via the arrow buttons on new pillow speaker remote controls that will accompany the televisions.
The television system was created by Lodgenet, a large provider of interactive televisions in hotels across the country. BWH is also working with Lodgenet and Patient Edu, a developer of patient education software programs for health care providers, to become the local pioneer of a new patient education system available through the television system.
The patient education, which will be customizable for each patient, will first be available to cardiovascular inpatients in the Shapiro Center and then come online to inpatients in other areas throughout the hospital over the next several months.
The system features video clips that are just 30 seconds to four minutes long and utilizes computer animation to teach patients about their conditions and procedures. “Concepts are broken up into small chunks that are easy for patients to understand,” said Ann Furey, RN, MBA, program coordinator in the Center for Nursing Excellence. “And we can customize what information patients see so they don’t get a lot of information irrelevant to their particular condition or disease.”