Enhanced Patient Experience with In-Room Internet

ks13832Reported by Healthcare IT News

The Washington Hospital, a 265-bed hospital in western Pennsylvania, plans to install wireless public Internet service to enhance the patient and guest experience. The not-for-profit, community hospital has signed an agreement with Irving, Texas-based Wayport, Inc., for the technology services.

“We are truly excited about offering our patients and their guests this new service,” said Telford W. Thomas, president and CEO of The Washington Hospital. “Patients and their guests coming to our hospital want to stay connected to family, friends and work at all times. We are delighted that we can help them do so.”

Thomas said hospitals providing guest Internet service must ensure the connection process is fast and simple, yet highly secure. The Washington Hospital will run private side wireless applications and devices and provide guest access on the same Wi-Fi network, while maintaining HIPAA compliance and internal network security.

Wayport will provide 24-hour phone support for anyone who needs assistance connecting to the wireless network while at the hospital, said Kevin McKeand, Wayport‘s vice president and general manager for healthcare.

Filed Under: Patient Experience

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From sports journalist to editor of an international trade magazine to Marketing Director for 3 companies before founding WBK Marketing, eventually one of the 50 largest promotional marketing agencies in America. Dale has pioneered "contextual marketing" for successful brands at P&G, Pepsi, Disney, Toshiba, Compaq, Imation, 3M and many regional hospitals and healthcare insurers. “From my days in college as a pre-med student and working as a transporter for Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, to developing marketing programs for hospitals and health insurers, I have always had a passion for how science and medicine can help bring sick people back to health. Hospitals are incredibly complex organizations, with two large clinical teams (doctors and nurses) and many highly skilled specialists and therapists. There are times when various groups working in medical centers have opposing view points that can lead to dissonance, which at the extreme can potentially impair patient safety and quality outcomes. The work we do at Compass Clinical Consulting guides many of these hospitals through contentious issues, process failure or breakdown with a negative impact on financial stability. Our department of education and information services has been assembled to produce high-value content for hospital leaders. Our goal is to help these leaders transform their organizations into better hospitals by reducing the cost of delivering safe, quality healthcare.” Dale has been an active blogger since 2004 when he launched The Perfect Customer Experience (www.perfectcem.com); recently recognized as one of Top 20 CRM blogs and on healthcare improvement (www.better-hospitals.com) where we now communicate about issues that impact making better American hospitals.

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