WASHINGTON – A recent internal survey conducted by George Washington University Hospital shows employee satisfaction with hospital communication is up by 33 percent, thanks in part to new ways of communicating.
Those new methods are based on Netpresenter software and include a mix of interactive PC screensavers, digital signage and emergency alerts. The technology makes it possible for the hospital to inform and motivate staff, update visitors and patients and warn everyone of emergencies with a single system.
Messages are now targeted to the audience or monitor location. The latest hospital and healthcare news is broadcast on all 1,200 personal computer workstations as an interactive screensaver and on large monitors in the staff elevator bays.
Targeted messages are also published on big screens in the visitor elevator bays, main lobby and physician lounges.
“We were looking for a solution that everyone in the hospital could access and that required no end-user training,” said Gretchen Tegethoff, chief information officer and director of information technology at George Washington University Hospital.
"Messages also needed to be easy to post. Finally, it had to reduce clutter by replacing posters and paper flyers.”
Tegethoff said the technology uses the hospital’s existing computer infrastructure.
Maine Medical Center, the largest community hospital in Maine, uses Netpresenter screen savers as an alternative to e-mail.
“The majority of our staff are physicians, nurses and other clinical staff who work various shifts, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week,” said Abigail Greenfield, communications relation manager for the hospital. “We must be able to reach this group of people quickly, easily and efficiently, particularly in an emergency situation.”
“George Washington University Hospital demonstrates what effective communication can do for organizations,” said Frank Hoen, Netpresenter’s CEO, “and that includes improving hospital safety, gaining and maintaining patients’ trust and increasing employee satisfaction.”
Items broadcast on staff PCs and monitors in restricted areas include internal hospital news, urgent news such as IT upgrades expected to disrupt the workflow, news on drug issues from suppliers and a few healthcare news items automatically imported from an online news site
