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Report User By Kathy Levine, RN
Kathy Levine is the Director of TigrVision Customer Development at TeleHealth Services.
Healthcare Technology Online
December 17, 2009
Over the past 20 years, technology has drastically changed with the way we communicate and learn. Traditional educational mediums such as handouts and brochures are taking a back seat to more interactive tools, such as on-demand video education. This learning evolution represents a technological paradigm shift to which hospitals across the country are adapting.
In the hospital setting, the television has a significant role in the overall patient experience. In many instances, the in-room television acts as the only source of entertainment and education for the patient during their stay. Patient educators now leverage this familiar technology, implementing on-demand curriculum for patients to access and view throughout their recovery.
The average American now watches more than 4 hours of television each day (A.C. Nielsen Co.) and 73.6% of Americans utilizing the Internet (Internet World Stats). Additional technology advancements, such as LCD televisions, HD programming and social media sites such as YouTube® and Facebook®, fuel the public’s desire for visualization and interactive communication mediums. These statistics speak to the fact that technology represents a popular and attractive educational tool.
Moreover, the use of multimedia patient education tools, in conjunction with an EMR, can deliver more value for patients and their providers by directly linking the educational module to the provider’s point of care.
A Vital Role
Primary care providers serve their patients not only through diagnosis and treatment but through counseling and the coordination of care beyond facility walls. Patient education is a necessary and vital component of these treatment efforts.
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Jeffrey S. Orringer, M.D., clinical assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Michigan Medical School and lead author of a study on video patient education in the Journal of the
The study included 217 patients who were separated into two groups. One group received an educational videotape before an initial consultation in conjunction with questionnaires assessing their knowledge about melanoma and their anxiety levels. The patients were instructed to complete one questionnaire before watching the 11-minute video and complete the other after viewing the video but before their melanoma clinic visit. The second group of patients received the same questionnaires but did not receive the videotape. These patients were instructed to fill out one questionnaire before the melanoma clinic consultation visit and fill out the second after the visit but before they left the physicians office. Patients that received the video taped scored 72% higher than those patients that did not watch the tape. On-demand interactive systems, which are available in a growing number of hospitals across the
Studies show that the consistency and availability of these messages are vital to the effectiveness of these systems and impact the patient during the recovery process through the following five key recovery strategies:
- Engage: Appeal and communicate to multiple learning styles, interest people in their own health.
- Compel: Empower patients to affect their own health outcomes.
- Teach: Provide patients with the tools they need to express themselves and ask questions pertinent to treatment and lifestyle decision-making.
- Retain: Enable patients to remember curriculum and continue to learn.
- Reassure: Help patients feel comfortable and less anxious during a hospital stay.
Optimal Outcomes
Patient education is an integral piece to a facility’s future, from both an accreditation and a fiscal standpoint. Interactive education systems ensure patients have access to condition-specific healthcare information, directly tying the interactive system to a facility’s accreditation goals.
Additionally, they stimulate the financial health of a facility by providing an underused revenue stream in the way of counseling and coordination of care with clinical staff, as well as reimbursements for group educational sessions.
Patient education initiated at the point of care and documented within an EMR provides the most benefit for the service levels of the hospital, and increases retention amongst the health care consumers they serve. This allows for revenue both in patient retention and by billing for educational counseling sessions, which with the appropriate tool can be directed to the proper staff thus avoiding loss of clinical productivity.
The main goal of care providers remains the ability to reach positive patient outcomes. Interactive patient education can be leveraged to accomplish this goal. These programs, when implemented effectively, work seamlessly with certified hospital programs to ensure patients learn about their condition and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Interactive on-demand education tools enable care givers to work with, teach and empower patients during their recovery. This ensures that patients are knowledgeable about their condition throughout the recovery continuum and arms them with pertinent information to move forward with healthy lifestyle choices.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Mr BubbleJesus replied, 'The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. 'Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. John 12:23-27
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