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Healthcare

HK hospital rolls out bedside terminals

By Jianggan Li | 15 September 2009

Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital has installed Patient Infotainment Terminals in every inpatient area, as part of the extension programme to offer a ‘brand new hospital experience’ for patients.

The device, called IE Buddy (Information plus Entertainment), provides clinical information as well as entertainment to every inpatient area.

According to HKSH, the device is capable of viewing clinical information, including patient assessment forms, radiology images & reports, lab results and patient record. Bedside medication verification is available, and HKSH intends to add physician order entry capabilities in the near future.

An array of “informative and entertaining” health education videos and feature articles produced by the hospital are made available to the patients through the terminal. Patients can also access internet, make VoIP calls, watch TV and order from the catering menu through the terminal.

Experiences in a few countries have shown that charging patients for bedside terminal will reduce the usage and the system will become a ‘white elephant’. HKSH patients will be offered information and entertainment services for free, according to Lily Cho, HKSH’s Manager of Information systems.

HKSH is the first hospital in Hong Kong to introduce PIT for inpatients, which have been trialled in a number of hospitals across the region. In fact, the issue of cost versus return of such terminals is often debated.

“This will not provide tangible return immediately,” Cho told FutureGov. “But it is closely aligned with our management concept which is to make patients happy and so promote the image of our hospital.”

The system was ready a few months ago, and was launched after clinicians had been issued with new staff cards, which are used to access these terminals, in addition to other facilities in the hospital, thus enabling fast logon which has been problematic in many point-of-care systems.

Other measures to enhance patient experience include a CCTV system installed at isolation unit to enable communication between patient and his families. In addition, ventilation system is enhanced in such rooms.

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