At Geisinger Health System in northeastern Pennsylvania, these interactive screens serve as “family engagement centers” providing information and entertainment, says Vice President of Digital Transformation Rebecca Stametz. Small touches, such as relaxation content and white noise for sleeping, elevate the quality of the patient experience.
Geisinger’s smart displays also provide information that includes real-time care team identification, daily goals, mobility progress and predischarge education.
“We want to prepare patients for when they leave the hospital so that they feel comfortable at home and have what they need,” Stametz says. “We can provide that personalized education at the right moment through this centralized hub.”
Since an initial deployment of 100 whiteboards in 2022, Geisinger has installed an additional 300 whiteboards and plans to add 100 more by year’s end. In surveys measuring the impact of the displays, nearly 90% of patients said they would recommend the digital whiteboard experience, Stametz says.
At Reid Health, integrating the screens with the EHR, picture archiving and communication systems and other tools has “dramatically improved” patient communication, Foust-Cofield says.
EXPLORE: Smart hospitals support innovation in patient care and experiences.
Less Time on Admin, More Time for Patients
Empowering patients to access information and self-service tasks via the interactive displays can make a significant difference for nurses. At Brigham and Women’s Hospital ED, whiteboards gave patients status updates to both alleviate their anxiety and free up clinical staff.
“We tried to design this in a way that would proactively address a lot of the questions that patients come to us for,” Chai says.
At Reid Health, self-service food ordering is one of the whiteboard’s most popular features, Foust-Cofield says. Now, nurses no longer have to spend 20 minutes placing an order.
Smart room technologies are part of Reid Health’s strategy for attracting and retaining clinical talent, she adds. When new graduates compare prospective employers, they notice whether an organization is using tools that simplify clinical workflows.
“This investment clearly sends a message to clinicians that we are committed to decreasing that burden on our first-line staff, so I think it speaks volumes,” she says.
