AV Technology - November/December 2008 - (Page 40)

yourworld healthcare Just What the Doctor Ordered developing something for them because it seemed to fit our mission.” Optimal’s eVideon Software is a cataloging and management tool for digital video assets designed originally for the K-12 market. Using that as a cornerstone, along with the hospital’s specifications for the scope of their new system, Optimal created an entirely new application designed specifically for the needs of the healthcare industry, using IPTV technology to merge the systems. PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS At the new hospital, a rooftop satellite dish brings in 64 TV channels. Each channel is sent to a receiver, then to its own Visionary Solutions AVN220 encoder blade, which digitizes the signal and sends it on to the hospital’s TCP/IP network. A trio of eVideon servers at the Data Head End acts as the control center. The first server manages and categorizes all digital media — live TV, 60 movies on demand, and over 400 patient education videos. Those videos and the movies are stored on the second server to be accessed when a patient calls for them. The third server manages the Amino set top boxes (also supplied by Visionary Solutions). “There’s nothing sexy about that server,” says King. “It offers extended control of the set top boxes at each TV location. If I want to send a command to all the STBs at once, in case of emergency or something like that, I can do that with this server.” Because the entertainment system is completely IP-based, Optimal installers were able to connect it to the hospital’s HL7 network, a nationally accepted protocol that allows health systems to talk to each other. By connecting the IP network to the HL7 network, the system can access all patient records, entertainment, educational videos, and even admissions information. GETTING TO KNOW YOU “Basically, if you’re a patient here, when you get to your room the TV screen is going to welcome you by name,” says Bill Lewkowski, executive vice president and CIO at Metro Health. “It knows who you are and why you’re here.” Once a patient is registered and given a bed, the software automatically assigns appropriate videos to that room. Since all rooms are private, the media content can be personalized. A 7-year-old child isn’t going to have access to PG-13 movies. A cardiac patient may have www.avtechnologyonline.com METRO HEALTH CONVERGES TECHNOLOGIES OVER IP NETWORK TO EDUCATE AND ENTERTAIN ITS PATIENTS. By Wendy L Ellis atients might find themselves looking for the mint on their pillow after a day or two at the new Metro Health Hospital near Grand Rapids, MI. It’s just the kind of personalized service one might expect from a five-star hotel — meals delivered to your private room, seemingly endless choices of television and movies on big screen TVs — even wireless internet access when and where you want it. Since opening the doors to a brand new 208-bed facility just over a year ago, Metro Health has been receiving high marks for patient satisfaction, not just for its cuttingedge healthcare technology, but also for its innovative IP-based patient education and entertainment system that goes above and beyond the norm. FINDING THE RIGHT FIT IP-based entertainment systems caught the eye of Metro Hospital planners long before the first brick was laid. Since the new hospital would already have an IP infrastructure, running coaxial cable seemed redundant and too limiting. P “At that point, you’re creating an isolated technology,” says Metro Health IT manager Art King. “It’s the delivery of TV and end of story.” Metro wanted far more than TV, but finding a system that gave them everything they wanted wasn’t easy. Many of the IP-based systems they looked at offered no flexibility in terms of content and were basically leased, not owned. “They wanted you to pay per patient room, per day,” says King. “Whether there was a patient in there or not.” In the end, Metro Health found the answer right down the road at Optimal Solutions, a Wyoming, MI firm that has been offering TCP/IP video management and delivery in educational settings for a dozen years, but had never ventured into the healthcare market. “Optimal as a company has always looked for technological solutions in the IP space,” says Scott King, Optimal’s director of Convergent Technologies. “Metro Health approached us knowing that we were doing IPbased delivery of video and asked if it would work in their environment. The answer was, ‘No,’ because we designed our system specifically for education, but we were very interested in 40 | AV TECHNOLOGY | november | december 2008 http://www.avtechnologyonline.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AV Technology - November/December 2008

AV Technology - November/December 2008 Contents Precedent Corporate: Finishing with Style Government: It’s Still About People Education: Surviving Budget Cuts Applying Metrics to AV ROI Selecting Room Scheduling Software Six Things You Need to Know About Webcasting The Way I See It: Becoming an Internet Native Casino Uses AV for Dramatic Impact Just What the Doctor Ordered The Loneliest Help Desk in Town Product Forum Product Spotlight Tech Horizons New Products Ad Index AV MO

AV Technology - November/December 2008

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