Linking patients to the world

By RICHARD PAMATATAU

Janice Davenport loves her email but has been without it while staying in North Shore Hospital getting her respiratory issues sorted out.

But now that the hospital has installed three free internet kiosks for patients she's going back online, thanks to the North Shore Hospital Foundation's efforts to create a "wellness environment" for patients.

Davenport was one of the first patients in North Shore's Acute Medical Ward 6 to use the free terminals installed in the hospital as part of a pilot that might see kiosks outside all the wards in the hospital.

"At work I had email and loved it because I was in touch with people, but in hospital you are reliant on visitors and phone calls and using the pre-paid mobile is very expensive," she said.

"This kiosk is great because once my son sets up a new address for me I am going to get going and send all sorts updates and messages.

"And because I've been reliant on my daughter or husband to bring me my Herald every day, I sometimes don't get it until the afternoon and I have missed out on the news.

"Recently, when my grandson was born, pictures of him were emailed to everyone the next day, which is just fantastic."

Another bonus of the system, said Davenport, was that it gave her a reason to get out of bed.

"Recently I had a bad day and by the time I got out of bed in the evening I thought I was seizing up.

"I was saying to this 88-year-old in my room that this kiosk thing is great because we get to walk down and catch up with the world. I'm going to show her how it works."

Desmae Earl, Ward 6 charge nurse, said the internet kiosk was helping the hospital develop an environment "where people come to get well".

"We get these type A people coming in here with say a heart problem, sometimes serious heart problems, and rather than let the outside world go by and focus on their healing, they are coming up to the nurses station and asking us if they can use our personal computers to check their email, or stocks, or banking.

"Our PCs contain personal information about all our patients and cannot be made available to them, so in the past these types have been given special leave to go home and attend to their business," said. Earl.

The kiosk means they are "in touch with their important business lives or whatever and if that takes a level of stress from them it means they can heal faster".

Locating the kiosks outside the ward was also very important, she said.

Sometimes patients brought their laptops and cellphones in and wired everything up to get on with their business, which could disturb other patients, said Earl.

She has been a nurse for 40 years and reckons that the shift to creating an environment for wellness is critical.

"The hospital does not have wiring for PCs at each bed and ward phone lines are limited, so this means there is another significant communication channel introduced to the mix," she said.

Another area where it might prove useful was when someone was particularly unwell and family members who were with the person round the clock might need a break, she said.

A break at the PC might be just what some of them needed.

She did not expect her staff to spend time "teaching" patients how to use the system, but they had been trained in the basics of pointing patients in the right direction and showing guidance.

"We are here to nurse, not teach computing skills."

Jane Hunter, executive director of North Shore Hospital Foundation, said the kiosks were being installed in association with Auckland's Zip Internet. She said they were designed to be self-funding eventually and her job was to sell advertising buttons for both the screens and the kiosk casings.

Each user was limited to a 20-minute session and internet access was controlled through net nanny software.

The kiosks were connected to high-speed broadband lines, she said.

A unique factor was that the Foundation and Zip would be revenue sharing.

Getting the kiosks in was no easy feat.

Hunter spent 18 months dealing with the hospital's overworked IT department who were worried about everything from security to support.

"This building is 25 years old so putting in systems is not that easy."

The hospital is waiting to see how the terminals are received and so far use of them by patients and staff has been high.

"I see them being used a lot in the maternity area and when a web cam is installed pictures of mum and baby will be sent round the world."

Raj Bhandari, Zip marketing and sales director, said there was potential to put up to 80 terminals through the healthcare facilities of Waitemata Health.

In an interconnected world this was going to be part of helping people to get well.

Counties Manukau Health does not offer patients internet access.

Megan Richards, Auckland District Health Board communications manager, said there was some internet access for patients and families at National Women's Hospital and The Starship.

"It's nothing like a kiosk, but they can check email and do banking," she said.

The new hospital has data ports so computers can be plugged in at each bed.

Steve Simms, general manager of Auckland's Reach Wireless, said putting a wireless "hotspot" network for internet access into any hospital was not difficult.