I visit a bed-ridden family member in an extended-care facility regularly. For furniture, the patient’s room is equipped with a traditional adjustable hospital bed, a narrow over-bed table, a small bed-side table, and several chairs for visitors. A desktop, corded telephone is on the bed-side table, together with assorted toiletries and other sundries. The over-bed table typically carries a pitcher of water, a drinking glass, a box of tissues, snacks and the patient’s cell phone, leaving little room for meals, much less anything else.
A corded hand control for raising and lowering the bed is within reach of the patient, as is another corded device with which the patient communicates with on-call nurses. A third corded, handheld device controls the television attached to the wall opposite the head of the patient’s bed. My family member often confuses one with the others.
My family member is tech-savvy and wants access to the Internet via his notebook PC. The healthcare facility provides WiFi access to patients, but, sadly, there just isn’t room for anything as large as the notebook on the over-bed table, and it gets too warm for laptop use. We offered him a tablet, but he found its small display too hard to view. To complicate matters, the television on the opposite wall is far enough away from the head of his bed that he has to turn its volume up to levels that are painful for visitors and staff.
We’re still trying to come up with a workable interim solution, knowing that, when a patient is confined to a bed in the isolation of a hospital room – particularly a patient who is used to having 24/7 Internet access to the world – that connection can make a world of difference.
The ideal solution for my family member would be a large, easy-to-read touch-screen display wall-mounted on a retracting arm so that it does not take up space in his bed or on the limited area of his narrow over-bed table – an all-in-one device that swings in front of the patient when needed and out of the way when not, that delivers both television programing and Internet access, and provides telephone communication with the outside world and two-way communication with the facility’s staff, obviating the need of the additional handheld controls that currently litter his bed. The ideal solution for my family member is Advantech’s all-in-one PIT-1703 17-inch Patient Infotainment Terminal.
The PIT-1703 is equipped with an easy-to-read 17-inch multi-function touchscreen, WiFi connectivity, a telephone handset, an RFID and a smart-card reader, and even a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, providing patients with TV, movie and computer-game entertainment, and allowing patients to stay in touch with family and friends via Internet video call. The RFID and smart-card readers provide for identification of both hospital staff and patients.
A wall-mounted PIT-1703 is always at hand, yet never in the way, and features hospital-friendly IP65 protection and easy-clean surfaces. Touch-panel control is augmented by programmable touch hotkeys, and there’s even provision for integration of a barcode scanner. The PIT-1703 Infotainment Terminal would contribute significantly to my family member’s quality of life and quality of healthcare, just as Advantech Patient Infotainment Terminals do daily for thousands of patients worldwide, including in Monaco’s Princess Grace Hospital Centre.
It’s all too easy to feel forgotten and disconnected when elderly are confined to a long-term care facility. What better cure than an always-at-hand, never-in-the-way portal to family, to caregivers, and to the world.