The TIGR system was recently named one of the top 10 technologies of 2011 for empowering patients and their families through the recovery process. With “meaningful use” and patient satisfaction policies changing hospital reimbursements, hospitals have begun expanding the use of these systems to address other challenges such as readmissions, service recovery, and revenue generation. The system will aid the two Centra hospitals through consistent education practices across the system, advanced discharge planning, EMR integration with their McKesson solution, and patient satisfaction.
TeleHealth Services, the nation’s leading provider of healthcare-grade televisions and interactive patient education solutions, today announced that it has partnered with Centra Health (Centra) to deploy the TIGR interactive patient education system across the health system’s acute care facilities. Centra is a technology driven, award-winning health system with state-of-the-art hospitals and health center facilities well known nationwide for their excellence in clinical and patient care. The partnership is focused on developing resources to transform patient care at Centra Lynchburg General and Centra Virginia Baptist Hospitals. In a campaign to motivate patient involvement in their recovery and educating patients about their role in the process, Centra has integrated the system across 1060 beds in the system as well as interoperability with their McKesson EMR system.
Looking to enhance its facility technology services and overall patient experience, Centra embarked on a detailed search process for a new interactive patient care system provider. After comparing providers, Centra chose TeleHealth Services for offering the only enterprise platform that could be deployed across the system, while providing a three-tiered integrated solution for future expansion of the system. TeleHealth Services’ reputation of providing leading support and flexible financing options also played a big role in the decision. TIGR’s unique communication system will allow clinicians and staff to provide 24×7 access to condition- specific educational content as well as important patient safety information and other hospital messaging. Centra’s integrated strategy for patient engagement involves both patient education and entertainment.
TeleHealth was also impressive in staffing internal development professionals to architect a bi-directional interface with our EMR system for clinical workflow efficiencies and the ability to document the educational session to the patient’s health record. TeleHealth provided a full entertainment and education solution consisting of the TIGR system, Samsung healthcare televisions, and Gen 4 direct access pillow speakers. The package was designed to deliver the familiar comforts and amenities of home, while making patients active participants in their own recovery. “TIGR’s value as a foundational technology that is customizable to meet changing healthcare requirements and government incentives in a manner that simultaneously furthers complementary business objectives was key in our decision,” said Vick.
As the nation’s leading interactive patient education solution, TIGR enables hospitals to improve the patient experience while increasing the value, quality and service of healthcare delivery. TIGR’s enterprise system value is to provide a patient-centered technology, providing coordinated and consistent care across the whole health system to aid in improving the quality of care and the patient experience. TIGR simplifies education delivery while providing automated service recovery for systems to proactively respond to patient feedback. These process improvements and system engineering principles enhance outcomes, ensure safety and increase patient satisfaction across the system’s footprint.
In addition, clinicians will be able to prescribe patient education curriculums, track patients’ comprehension of content and automatically transcribe the educational session into the patient’s record through integration with the facility’s EMR system. This functionality, along with the increased patient entertainment options, will aid Centra in increasing CMS reimbursements and improving patient outcomes.
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