Digital Signage Companies Aren’t The Only Ones Chasing Health Care Communications Business
August 22, 2023 by Dave Haynes
Here’s another example of a company that works outside the digital signage business finding its way into the industry to address evolving customer needs – a firm that started out putting TVs in hospital rooms now doing what it calls interactive patient care.
The Long Island, NY firm pCare has a platform that includes screens in patient rooms and at the doorway just outside the room, relaying updated information from patient management and other hospital systems.
The company also still does in-room TVs, but unlike the old days, these ones support things like casting from smartphones.
pCare’s “end-to-end interactive patient care system (IPS)” was just switched on at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida, which just admitted its first patient at the end of July.
With a purposeful and thoughtful design, pCare’s technology ensures patient engagement throughout the care journey. Each 350-square-foot room within the new 10-story building is equipped with a Smart TV running pCare’s IPS, including the Digital Whiteboard, which displays key patient and provider information; TV entertainment; and BYOD (bring your own device) and casting capabilities, allowing patients to pair their personal devices with the pCare system.
The patient engagement integration also includes Room Connect, the powerful digital door display that shows key patient information at the entrance of their room and a bedside tablet option to easily navigate the system.
“Using pCare’s technology, we’re delivering unparalleled patient-centered care that encompasses the needs of patients and caregivers,” says Christine Alvero, VP Hospital Operations at Moffitt McKinley Hospital. “The technology provides seamless integration with our existing systems and improves the overall inpatient experience for both patients and team members.”
I note this because lots of digital signage solutions providers are looking at the largely greenfields opportunity presented by healthcare. While medical records are digital and health care centers use a lot of IT, patient care often still involves analog whiteboards and dry erase markers, as well as clipboards dropped in sleeves outside patient rooms. Digital is very obviously a better way to go, even down to the simple stuff like not being able to decode a caregiver’s terrible handwriting.
The challenge is companies like pCare have decades of experience, history and contacts in health care, versus digital signage CMS and solutions companies just trying to work their way in and learn how heath care operates, makes decisions and budgets. It may often be the case that companies who bolt digital signage on to their broader solution offer limited functionality, power and scale (when compared to pure-play CMS platforms), but it will often be the case that they don’t need all that.
The companies seemingly best suited to patient care-level digital signage would be those already busy in hospitality – with meeting room signage equating to patient room signage, and IPTV for hospital rooms similar in many respects to the hotel TVs that personally welcome guests when they first enter rooms.
Nice article everyone! We very much enjoy working with pCare. Professional, expert, and reliable.