In the last few years, a technological revolution has taken place in the healthcare sector – where communication with patients and staff is crucial – to improve patient care, enhance operational efficiency, and, hence, cut costs.
However, hospitals around the world have faced the challenge of managing multiple overlapping video delivery technologies to serve different purposes: they have invested in old coaxial-based cable TV for patients, separate video communications for clinical and administrative use, and interactive digital signage for guidance and education.
With IPTV technology advancing at a rapid pace, there’s an opportunity to take the next big step toward integrating these infrastructures for good, consolidating all of these disjointed systems into one while cutting costs and giving patients and visitors enhanced experiences, which would also boost the productivity of staff.
Michael Chorpash, Vice President of Enterprise Solutions at VITEC, comments: “There is growing recognition of how IPTV can consolidate these different applications onto a single data network that is managed and controlled in a more automated fashion by the information technology staff. IPTV is also creating other opportunities to streamline operations and improve service to staff and patients. Beyond this, the entire community benefits from consistent security and management controls.”
Clearly, IPTV is one of those emerging technologies that is influencing a major change in the sector. Typically exploited in the world of entertainment and hospitality for decades, now the healthcare sector is realising the maximum potential of IPTV. This blog will explore the future of video technology in healthcare by looking at benefits for both patients and staff.
Benefits for patients
Information on appointments and wait times
Wait times are highly variable and can be anything from a few minutes to several hours. Digital signage could, thus, be a very useful tool in managing this experience by continuously updating the wait time and holding interest with dynamically changing videos to ensure the content is easily digestible. This can help avoid overcrowding in waiting rooms and also inform patients of on-site amenities, including a café, so they can better make use of their wait time.
Furthermore, digital signage at hospitals can provide personalised information to patients after surgery during the recovery process. This will include daily exercises to help in recovering faster and details of the medications and dosage required. Therefore, enhancing patient experience through the use of digital signage helps to improve the information flow and effective management of patient care.
Entertainment and engagement
IPTV can enhance a hospital stay with access to free and subscribed TV services, catch-up facilities, Video on Demand, and streaming. Patients can watch TV shows and view their personal content through SmartTV applications, Chromecast, or screen-sharing applications. It also allows the hospital’s information pages to be accessed via the TV, and the patients can order meals and receive key messages.
Improved wayfinding
Hospitals are large and complex facilities consisting of several buildings, multi-story wings, and hundreds of look-alike rooms and corridors. Digital signs inside hospitals can greatly improve wayfinding for patients. Placed in high-traffic areas, they can help patients find their way around the facility with ease. The interactive maps available on the digital screens at the hospital make it very easy for the patients to navigate with ease and locate where they are supposed to be. By incorporating such digital wayfinding tools, not only is the patients’ experience improved, but the flow of foot traffic within the hospital is also optimised.
Emergency options
Data-driven video technology significantly increases patient safety within hospitals and health centres. The systems can distinguish between states such as falling, sitting, kneeling, or picking something up. If a patient falls, these systems can alert nurses in time for rapid response, potentially saving a life. This data-driven system is also capable of intelligent sound analysis for mood swings such as fear, anger, or verbal aggressiveness. This capacity allows one to give an early warning of potential conflicts or dangers, and this assists the healthcare staff to intervene on time and effectively de-escalate the situation.
Increased patient privacy
While the prospect of video systems recording and monitoring healthcare staff and patients may instil anxiety rather than a feeling of comfort, there are ways for these systems to protect patient privacy. Most video systems only use live video without recording and blur images to prevent identification.
As much as technologies advance, in particular with the incorporation of video solutions that go towards increasing health efficiencies, tight GDPR compliance will remain in place. Future guidelines and plugins should be developed based on this to ensure that personal data and patient privacy are strictly safeguarded with the highest possible standards of confidentiality and security.
Benefits for staff
Staff and Team Communication
Effective communication among healthcare staff, whether among teams or departments, is critical and frequently lifesaving in the fast-paced hospital environment. This can be challenging when departments are located in separate buildings. Digital signage can greatly improve communication through screen displays of important information and live updates. This technology cuts down the time used to relay messages or in searching for colleagues for a face-to-face conversation, thus reducing the chances of missing important details within the shortest time possible.
Messaging for information and emergencies
Fast response is the basis of healthcare. In an emergency, properly relayed information can save the situation from going horribly wrong. Digital signage can also be successfully used in these situations, with urgent messages appearing on screens, which would typically flash in a way that catches immediate attention. In addition, digitising patient data, typically found in hard copy charts, could be efficiently dispersed and published over digital signage, thus saving valuable time and avoiding errors in staff.
Training and increased productivity
Lifelong learning and training are indispensable for professionals in healthcare to retain and enhance productivity. Digital signage provides the means to this end through educational videos, seminars, webcasts, training modules, and updates on facility policy changes and procedural adjustments. This approach promotes continuous upskilling that ensures that the health personnel remain capable of working efficiently and being effective.
Better Sharing of Information for Engagement
Visualisation can be hugely important for communicating the issues that the patient is suffering from. Installing digital signage in patient rooms can help achieve this, as doctors will be able to refer to test results, medical history, medications in use, x-rays, and other data on a screen and refer to them. This can help speed up diagnosis and advise on recovery and rehab for their ailments.
Digital signage provides solutions for the myriad of challenges within the healthcare industry and is set to revolutionise it through technological advancements. Having already established itself as a major supplier of digital signage, VITEC is committed to continually improve and streamline processes through innovative services. Connect today for detailed information on the most innovative digital signage solutions. For our sustainability approach and values, see here.
IP Video & Digital Signage Solutions in Healthcare – VITEC enables healthcare providers to communicate, inform and entertain patients in their care.
Read more: https://www.vitec.com/ip-video-digital-signage-solutions-in-healthcare
VITEC IPTV System provides patients and staff with managed access to different categories of content – whether VoD, in-house videos, proprietary programming or OTA broadcasts – via a streamlined system that is robust, reliable and simple to use.
Read more: vitec.com/… /kansas-city-royals-video-wall
IPTV in Hospitals – Cost Effective Performance Improvement – what role can IPTV play in streamlining the delivery of video services to all of the different constituencies?
https://www.vitec.com/…/iptv-in-hospitals-and-healthcare-facilities/
https://www.vitec.com/…/iptv-in-hospitals-cost-effective-performance-improvement/
