New Jersey hospital replaces in-room televisions with bedside tablets

NEW YORK - Jan. 14, 2021 - PRLog -- When faced with replacing more than 100 in-room televisions, East Orange General Hospital identified a favorable alternative. Patients now use HIPAA-compliant tablets from PadInMotion to access television, news, music and games as well as patient education materials, wellness offerings and hospital service information. The bedside tablets also provide communication applications for video-calling with loved ones and with members of the care team.

"East Orange General Hospital has adopted an 'out of the box' thinking and decision-making methodology to ensure we're meeting our patient's needs and also delivering modern, state-of-the-art solutions and services.  For years, we've struggled financially to replace broken televisions and outdated cable equipment given other clinical investment needs," said Paige Dworak, the hospital's president and CEO. "With PadInMotion, we provide a modern-day TV, streaming, gaming, and education platform to all of our patients. This technology enables us to make significant improvements to the way we engage patients, and the way patients connect to the outside world – and to do so in a very cost-effective way."

East Orange contacted PadInMotion in September 2020 at the suggestion of a staff member who had previous experience with a large, enterprise-wide tablet deployment at a New York City health system. By mid-December, East Orange operationalized 95 tablets across its medical-surgical units. Plans call for an additional 25 additional tablets in emergency, ICU, same-day surgery and outpatient dialysis departments.

The tablets display East Orange branding and provide ready access to online TV via ABC, Pluto TV, The CW, and YouTube as well as access to services such as Netflix and Hulu. Beyond this, they serve as a single point of access for news, music and games as well as educational materials, wellness and recovery resources, discharge planning information, and more.

"My colleagues in nursing, patient experience, and IT were on board from the get-go. PadInMotion led efforts to plan the project, customize interfaces and deploy tablets, all within six weeks of contract signing and using less than 15 hours of meeting time," said Jeff Kridel, East Orange senior director of IT operations. "The process was painless, and we've had an incredibly enthusiastic response from patients and caregivers."

"With rapid expansion of online, digital offerings, today's consumers expect to use newer technologies," Kridel said. "Televisions are, in essence, becoming somewhat 'old school.'"

PadInMotion recently added Care Team Connect. This proprietary application provides chat and video connectivity of hospitalized patients with members of their care team. PadInMotion also offers EZCall, an application created to overcome challenges of using Skype, ZOOM and other similar applications for hospital-based video-calling with loved ones.

"Remote communication is a must-have due to COVID-19. Visitor restrictions cause patients to feel isolated. Gowning up to enter rooms is time- and cost- intensive," Dworak said. "Video engagement helps patients feel reassured and helps staff continue to deliver exceptional care. We're streamlining remote connectivity among patients, caregivers and loved ones."

East Orange is now evaluating PadInMotion to enable tablet-based language translation, telemedicine visits, and meal ordering. EMR connectivity is on the roadmap.

According to Kridel, PadInMotion's enterprise platform and all-in-one pricing were key selling points. "With an open, extensible framework and an annual SaaS subscription pricing model, we'll see no add-on fees when making updates or adding new features," he stated.

"East Orange leadership has worked diligently in recent years to maintain financial solvency. That's difficult on a community," said PadInMotion CEO Nir Altman. "We're pleased to support this hospital's positive step forward with innovative technology that's proven to increase patient satisfaction, improve outcomes and reduce costs.