Skylight Healthcare Systems Announces New Hospital Partner
Vanderbilt Medical Center set to launch the Skylight ACCESS™ interactive patient system.
Nashville, TN and San Diego, CA (PRWEB) October 2, 2007
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has selected Skylight Healthcare Systems, the premier provider of interactive patient communication technology, to equip over 500 patient rooms with the Skylight ACCESS Interactive Patient System. Installation is slated for completion this fall.
True Patient-Centered Communication
Vanderbilt University Medical Center has built a strong reputation as a leader in medical education, research and patient care over the course of its 127-year history. Driven by innovation in patient care - the patient experience has not been overlooked. The Skylight ACCESS Interactive Patient System will enable truly patient-centered communication at the bedside.
With Skylight, VUMC patients will have direct access to disease - and condition-specific health information (offered both on-demand, and when integrated with other hospital systems, scheduled based on matching patient clinical needs with targeted interventions), connection to patient support departments (for example, room comfort requests go directly to hospitality services), and a real-time feedback forum which will allow VUMC to solicit patient feedback and then provide immediate service recovery to address any patient issues. Patients will also enjoy high-speed Internet, e-mail and other first-class entertainment options including movies, music and games. VUMC feels confident that providing these interactive services and more patient empowerment will greatly enhance the overall patient experience, ultimately improving patient satisfaction and outcomes.
"A core part of our credo is to treat others as we wish to be treated, and to continuously evaluate and improve our performance," said Joel Lee, VUMC's Associate Vice Chancellor for Communications. "Knowing what to expect and being empowered to directly impact the care experience can help the patient and family work together with their caregivers to make the hospital stay more comfortable, and improve clinical outcomes. The ACCESS System will be a huge support of our efforts in this regard."
Using Skylight ACCESS combined with admission, discharge and transfer data, and HL7 (or other) interfaces, events are mapped along the patient care continuum and appropriate communication, education, information and messaging functions are deployed to optimize the patient experience and enhance clinical outcomes.
"We envision taking patient communication beyond on-demand information, education and entertainment, and will be reviewing integrated patient workflows for communication on a variety of topics that affect the patient experience," said Terrell Smith, VUMC's Director of Patient and Family Care. "We expect to provide welcome messaging, information about patient safety protocols, rights and responsibilities briefings, pain management counsel, and material about preparing for hospital discharge."
Superior Technology Platform
The Skylight ACCESS Interactive Patient System uses a robust, dedicated fiber network infrastructure combined with a proprietary technology platform to offer exceptional bandwidth and speed, allowing extensive integrated communication applications at the bedside. The technology is cutting-edge, but user friendly. Patients will use a customized pillow speaker control or a wireless keyboard to control the ACCESS system, and existing in-room television monitors are repurposed as the display device.
Service Matters
Skylight Healthcare Systems will provide VUMC with all system hardware and software, installation of fiber optic and Ethernet cabling, as well as custom content mapping and integration for their specific patient communication needs. Under the service subscription model, Skylight maintains full responsibility for operating and maintaining all aspects of the ACCESS System throughout the life of the contract.
In addition, the hospital is assigned a professional Account Manager and Technical Services Team. Working with VUMC's designated project group, the Account Manager will facilitate the design of integrated communication solutions for specific aspects of the hospital stay in support of Vanderbilt's patient quality, clinical outcomes and satisfaction objectives.
"We are honored to have been selected by a prestigious organization such as VUMC to help them transform patient communication forever," said David Schofield, president and CEO of Skylight. "Patients go to an academic medical center to get the very best in modern care. In partnering with Skylight, VUMC is now changing the patient experience forever -- offering technology solutions that provide information, education and communication that today's healthcare consumers have come to expect," he said.
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