by cjones on February 8, 2010
This is the final article in a series about hospital TV systems and the issues that can cause this asset to be ignored in many hospitals.
Reason #1: Lack of Ownership
In many hospitals the TV System has no business owner. There is no designated person whose job description includes the business strategy for the hospital TV system. There is usually a technical contact who maintains the system to keep the channels on the air and replaces TV’s when they quit working, but in most cases there is no business manager who looks out for the TV system in budget meetings, makes recommendations, maps out a strategic plan to maximize the system to benefit the hospital to make sure the system provides the necessary programming and features for patients.
Hospital TV System Ownership
In some situations the TV System is transferred to IT and most IT managers don’t really want the added responsibility. This makes it easy for the system to fall off of everyone’s radar screen and over time the system will decline in quality as it ages and becomes a patient irritation rather than a tool to foster better patient relationships.
Rather than let the hospital TV system languish, hospitals should refocus on this resource to enhance patient relationships, improve patient communications and save staff time by using their hospital TV system as a way to communicate directly with patients and guests.
So, who should be responsible for the hospital TV system from a business strategy standpoint? I think the logical choice is Marketing and Communications. Sometimes these are separate departments and sometimes they are one in the same, but Marketing makes the most sense because they are responsible for hospital communications to the public and they are in the best position to organize other departments and activities to put forth a strategic effort.
Free Download - Maximizing Your Hospital TV System
As an example, the hospital TV system is a perfect tool to use to enhance patient education. Nursing, Patient Education, Dietetics, Physical Therapy and other departments with direct responsibility for patient education can use video as a tool to improve a patient’s understanding of their condition, treatment and rehab that will make the patient and their family caregivers feel more comfortable and more confident after discharge. And this is just one area of possible improvement. For more ideas on what you can do to improve your hospital TV system please download our e-paper on How To Make Your Hospital TV System a Revenue Positive Asset.
The key to making the hospital TV system a revenue positive resource is to assign business responsibility. Make it part of the Marketing Department and the overall marketing strategy of the hospital. Happy and informed patients talk about their experiences and today they carry those conversations online to Facebook, chat rooms, discussion forums, Twitter, email and YouTube. So the better job your hospital does with your patients’ healthcare, education, comfort and confidence the more likely you are to benefit from increased referrals, positive feedback and new patients.
For information on video on demand, patient education, relaxation content or a welcome channel please visit our website.
Tagged as:
Educational Video,
hospital tv,
hospital video applications,
patient education,
Video On Demand
by cjones on February 1, 2010
This is the fourth in a series of articles about hospital TV systems and the issues that can cause this asset to be ignored in many hospitals.
Reason #2: Hospital TV Does Not Produce Direct Revenue
With healthcare costs continuing to rise at a steady clip hospitals need revenue to make up for Medicare and other
Revenue Shortfalls
revenue shortfalls they face each day and the TV system generally is not considered to be a source of revenue. Back in the day, the patient paid to watch TV and the “pink ladies”, candy stripers or a TV vendor would visit each room to collect the $3 or $5 per day necessary to keep the morning soap operas and game shows on.
The practice of renting the TV is still done in some areas of the country but for the most part patients expect cable TV to be included as part of the cost of the room. Some vendors and hospitals have tried premium content such as tiered cable channels and pay-per-view movies but these have had only limited success. Patients typically don’t want to pay for a movie if half-way through the show a nurse takes them out of their room for a test or procedure. The other problem with pay-per-view is collecting the money. There are many stories of vendors trying to collect movie fees and the patient denies ever ordering the movie or it was discovered that the room was actually vacant when the movie rental occurred. This causes customer service/patient relations problems that hospitals want to avoid. As a result, many hospitals that tried the premium tier and pay-per-view movie programs eventually abandoned it to reduce the public and patient relations problems.
Rather than put the hospital TV system on the back-burner because there is no direct revenue, hospitals should refocus
Free Download - Maximizing Your Hospital TV System
this resource to enhance patient relationships, improve patient communications and save staff time by using their hospital TV system as a way to communicate directly with patients and guests and increase patient education options.
For more ideas on what you can do to improve your hospital TV system please download our e-paper on How To Make Your Hospital TV System a Revenue Positive Asset.
For information on video on demand, patient education, relaxation content or a welcome channel please visit our website.
Tagged as:
Educational Video,
healthcare education,
hospital tv,
hospital TV systems,
hospital video applications,
patient education,
relaxation channel,
welcome channel
by cjones on January 27, 2010
This is the third in a series of articles about hospital TV systems and the issues that can cause this asset to be ignored in many of today’s hospitals.
Reason #3: The CEO’s Spouse Doesn’t Have To Watch It
This is meant to be “tongue in cheek” but may resonate with some hospitals. How good is the picture quality and channel line-up in your hospital? Is the picture crystal clear on all channels? Are all channels visible or do you have
Poor Quality TV Picture
some channels that just drop out periodically? How good is the channel line-up? Do you offer local off-air channels, basic cable, expanded cable or more services?
Most hospitals followed the early hotel model for TV channels which was “the fewer the better”. Hotels had an advantage in that they were also providing pay-per-view movies. In the beginning these were considered a novelty and the buy rates in hotels were quite good. Hospitals tried this in several iterations including premium channels, movie channels and pay-per-view but these “pay” models have not garnered broad appeal.
Today’s patient expects their hospital TV to be similar to what they have in their homes but don’t expect to pay for it or see an extra charge on their hospital bill.
If you are a hospital administrator or staff member, what would your spouse or child say about your TV system if they stayed in your hospital for three days or more? Would they be happy?
On a personal note, a friend of mine is in the hospital having triple by-pass surgery and because of his condition he was admitted seven days in advance of the surgery because of the possible risk of a heart attack. His doctor wanted his condition to be monitored closely and carefully. For my friend the time spent in the hospital just waiting has been agonizing and boring. Friends and relatives have visited and his immediate family have been in and out often but you can tell that cabin fever has taken it’s toll.
I visited the other day and noticed that his TV was on the local city’s bulletin board channel which only broadcasts local community messages but also plays background music. (It’s important to note that he does not live in this city.) I had to ask why, given that I’m familiar with hospital TV but don’t often get the chance to interact with patients. His response struck a chord with my current blog. When I asked why he had the TV on that channel he said, “The TV here sucks. The channel selection is terrible and several channels have picture problems so there’s nothing on that’s watchable but this.”
What’s the take-away? Patients are guests in your hospital and for many, the time spent can be agonizingly boring if there are no distractions. Your TV system can provide not only distraction but many other features that can make a patient’s time easier to take.
We believe an opportunity exists for hospitals to use their Hospital TV system to do much more. Examples include marketing and positioning as well as offering multimedia patient education by adding an interactive patient education system; give patients alternatives to traditional TV by adding a relaxation channel, and implementing time savings and information enhancements by creating local medical content and improving communications with a Welcome Channel.
It makes sense that while my friend was waiting for his surgery and his family was present and discussing the changes
Teachable Moments
he would have to make after surgery a series of educational video programs on topics such as exercise and rehab after a by-pass, food and nutrition tips, do’s and don’ts after discharge would have provided them with really valuable information and they would gladly have watched because they were interested in learning what to do after discharge.
Rather than ignore the hospital TV system it is time for hospitals to take steps to better utilize this resource to enhance patient relationships, improve patient interactions and save staff time.
For more ideas on what you can do to improve your hospital TV system please download our e-paper on How To Make Your Hospital TV System a Revenue Positive Asset.
For information on video on demand, patient education, relaxation content or a welcome channel please visit our website.
Tagged as:
Educational Video,
hospital tv,
hospital video applications,
patient education
