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Enhancing the Patient Experience

By using the latest interactive digital signage technology incorporating social media, the Champlin clinic provides an engaging tool to educate patients on their condition while offering a welcome distraction during their stay.

Enhancing the Patient Experience

Dec 6, 2013 4:19 PM

Park Nicollet Health Services is a non-profit, integrated healthcare system with 25 clinics located in metropolitan and suburban Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn. Park Nicollet celebrated the grand opening of its latest clinic and urgent care center in Champlin by inviting the public to tour the new facility and get hands-on with its most innovative feature: a digital signage network designed to improve the experience of patients and staff. By using the latest interactive digital signage technology incorporating social media, the Champlin clinic provides an engaging tool to educate patients on their condition while offering a welcome distraction during their stay.

The Patient Experience

The Champlin clinic’s network consists of 14 46in. digital screens and interactive touchscreen displays. Upon entering the clinic, digital screens in the lobby greet visitors with bios on clinic staff and photos, as well as other content from Park Nicollet Health Services’ Facebook page and website. While waiting in the lobby, users can read through fun medical facts, view a three-day weather forecast, and catch up on the latest news from Reuters and a local news feed via a scrolling ticker.

Each patient room features an interactive touchscreen offering a variety of on-demand health videos and informational PDFs that patients can select to receive more information on their specific condition, in addition to staff bios, Facebook content, news tickers, and real-time weather conditions. To provide even more information, the touchscreens also include a link to www.healthwise.org for quick navigation to the site.

To make the stay for children more enjoyable, another link to a “Kid’s Zone” offers access to a number of entertaining videos. If a patient needs to travel to a different Park Nicollet clinic, the screens include a Google map function to provide directions. To take directions with them, a QR code on the screen can be conveniently scanned by patients with their mobile devices.

System Design

Installed by Parallel Technologies, the system’s design phase began by specifying a media player for the Champlin clinic’s digital signage network. The team turned to the Cisco Interactive Experience Client (IEC) 4600 Series of enterprise-grade configurable and manageable media players, selecting the dual-core IEC 4632 for the installation. The IEC 4632 is not only a secure and reliable device perfectly suited to the healthcare environment, but it also provides built-in support for voice and video communications allowing the rapid development and delivery of future collaboration applications. When it came to selecting content management software for the system, finding a solution that would provide seamless interoperability with the Cisco player was an important requirement.

With its ability to provide seamless integration with third-party media players, the X2O platform met the clinic’s interoperability needs while making it easier than ever to create rich media content for any display. Built using the HTML5 standard, its authoring application features intuitive, drag-and-drop tools to let users quickly create media-rich channels featuring HD video, still images, 3D animations, and data-driven graphics linked to corporate databases like SAPand Oracle, Excel spreadsheets, or RSS feeds. The cloud-based X2O Channel Designer can be accessed from anywhere via a Web browser. In addition to the X2O player, which supports HTML5 and renders content in real time, the open X2O platform also integrates easily with third-party media players, such as the Cisco IEC 4632.

The X2O platform allows users to harness the power of social media by displaying user-generated content from popular sites like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. Interactivity can be simply added by displaying QR codes that users can scan with their mobile devices. With the X2O platform, it’s easy to publish content to a variety of devices — including desktop PCs, tablets, mobile phones, and digital signage displays.

Patient and Staff Reaction

“Our digital signage network has been extremely well received by our patients,” said Sue Coller, Office Supervisor for Park Nicollet Clinic – Champlin. “We now offer them easy access to on-demand health videos and e-documentation on their conditions as well as social media, real-time news and weather content to educate and entertain them. The end result is a much more enjoyable visit.”

“The network has also been a big hit with our staff when it comes to content management. Since videos and other information on the in-room screens are specific to the patient currently in the room, it is our doctors who upload content based on their condition. The X2O platform allows them to do that quickly without the need for assistance from the IT department, which frees them up to spend more time with their patients,” added Coller.

PRODUCT AT WORK: X2O Platform

Built using the HTML5 standard, X2O is the next-generation visual communications platform from X2O Media, which features a browser-based, drag-and-drop authoring tool allowing users to create media-rich channels quickly featuring HD video, 3D animations, data-driven graphics, social media content, and QR codes for interactivity with mobile devices.

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