Joe Nora, Vice-President of Healthcare Sales at SVI Healthcare, talked to Patient Education Update about current trends for on-demand technology in the hospital setting.

Patient Education Update: What does SVI hope to achieve with their on-demand system?

Nora: Our goal is to help providers find better, more efficient ways to deliver information. This reduces costs and at the same time eliminates some of those older mechanisms like TV/VCR carts and closed circuit scheduled education channels.

PEU: What is the primary content offered?

Nora: It can deliver patient and staff education, post viewing retention quizzes to measure retention, and surveys to measure patient satisfaction.

PEU: How is documentation done?

Nora: Documentation can be provided in paper or electronic format so that that information automatically is documented on patient records.

PEU: How does a post viewing test work?

Nora: The hospital can attach any type of post viewing test they want. We can help them do that. The patient’s answers are documented and can be retrieved in several ways. If someone is connected to the hospital network, the report can be printed on network printers within the hospital department or they can be electronically recorded into the patient record system automatically.

PEU: What other content can patients access?

Nora: We offer relaxation content to help reduce anxiety and sleeplessness, and entertainment via movies and music to help pass the time. There’swireless Internet access. Wi-Fi is the most cost effective and best way to offer web access. People can bring in and use their own laptop PCs.

PEU: What kind of mundane information issues does on-demand take care of?

Nora: It can help deliver all kinds of general information such as the daily menu, daily activities within the hospital, gift shop hours, a CEO greeting to patients, discharge and admittance procedures, and assessment procedures.

PEU: These systems can be expensive. How do you keep costs under control?

Nora: We plug into existing hardware and software that you already have invested money in. We use your existing infrastructure to piggyback on your current cabling, TV, phone system, local area networks, and IT systems. You don’t have to install other kinds of equipment in the patient or staff areas.

PEU: What is the biggest challenge to get a hospital to move ahead?

Nora: Funding is because video on-demand systems don’t appear on the radar screen of a typical hospital when it comes to the budget process.  The key is to get them excited about it and to understand that from an education standpoint this would really benefit them. 

PEU: What can you, as a vendor, do to help the educator involved in this process?

We have extensive cost benefit analysis tools that can help them determine what amounts of money are being spent for the delivery of education and information. Then we can determine what we can save them. An educator will become a true hero in a hospital if they help justify a system like this.

PEU: Can you give an example?

Nora: If you go into most hospitals, one activity that has gone on for a lot of years is the carting of TV/VCR systems from room to room. So you start backtracking and you just round it off…10-15 minutes of the nurses time and you are doing it several times a day times, 365 days a year, you come up with a pretty big number. Then its like, whoa, in the end you have 25 different rooms and only 5 of them are getting the education they need delivered to them by using a TV/VCR cart. Typically a nurse is doing the activity, and it’s a cumbersome ordeal.

PEU: How can on-demand help besides patient education?

Nora: The more the system becomes a central focus of the delivery of any kind of information, the more efficient it’s going to get. For example, the hospital just went to a new syringe, and every nurse and staff member needs to be trained on it. Everyone knows about in-service training. There’s a guy that’s there for a few days to do in-service and then he’s gone. Maybe some individuals were too busy to see the demo. But the vendor usually has a 15-20 minute training video. So you put that tape on the on-demand system and you have 24/7 availability for first, second, and third shift staff and new employee orientation later.

PEU: Do you have any funding suggestions if the general budget can’t pay for the entire system?

Nora: Sometimes systems are funded by foundations or auxiliaries. This system is going to be pumping videos out to their TV screens for as long as the system is installed. So they can add a tag line to it to say “this system is funded by…” as a promotional tool or to give recognition to the foundation or auxiliary.

PEU: How do facilities use the system for surveys?

Nora: The system has the ability to create any sort of patient or staff survey.  The system will automatically collect that information and more importantly it will automatically notify the proper individual, if a question is answered negatively. It has the capability of measuring satisfaction. But it is not intended to eliminate “mail out” surveys because you can’t ask the same question to a patient still in the hospital because it won’t be answered in the same way.  It’s meant to be cover service type of satisfaction as opposed to overall satisfaction.

PEU: Can on-demand help hospitals meet people’s higher expectations?

Nora: Yes. I think it’s where everyone needs to go because what’s coming is a different culture, the baby boomers. That culture typically demands more when it comes to having access to information and technology. The pyramid is flipping and the majority of the population is going to be in the older bracket. When that happens, hospitals need to be geared to whatever competitive advantages that are available and this is one of them. The future of on-demand will continue to push toward a hotel-like environment.

PEU: How does a hospital balance on-demand technology with their greater goals?

Nora: Technology is important, but technology really should be only about 10% of what you evaluate, What really should be the focus is how this system is going to be incorporated into the clinical process because if it doesn’t get used, you’ll be just wasting a lot of money.

PEU: How is these goals achieved?

Nora: This is a newer technology, and there is a misconception that it’s going to be used just because it was installed. That’s very far from the truth. It has to be totally integrated into the deliver care. The CEO, medical director, director of nursing all have to say, “This on-demand system is going to become the primary deliverer of patient education, information, and entertainment to our patients and staff.”

If you'd like to contact Joe Nora, he can be reached at 800 255-1143 or by e-mail at joe@svi.com.