News Releases

Digital Facts & Fun Come to the Hospital Bedside

Pyxis PatientStation revolutionizes experience for patients

Houston, Texas, November 17, 2003 – For the first time ever in Houston healthcare, digital online bedside services are literally at the patient’s fingertips. Patients at Memorial Hermann Memorial City Hospital can swing a floor-mounted, 15-inch flat touch screen wherever they want it and log on to the Internet, check e-mail, watch movies or TV, listen to the radio, learn about the hospital, and more.
   

The digital Pyxis PatientStation is a personal computer that runs on a Windows 2000 platform, but with its exclusive visual interface this serious piece of hardware has the healthful appearance of pure fun.

At no additional charge, patients can tune in to local TV channels, watch relaxation videos, or get healthcare information through the special Patient Portal. For a small daily fee, premium options are available, including cable TV channels, games, high-speed Internet, and radio.

Patient response has been overwhelmingly positive. Following her husband’s recent stay, Shelley Vanderhey wrote, “My husband had been in pain for four days. Once he was admitted and put in the room, the nurse showed him how to use the PatientStation. He started to play games. After about 20 minutes I realized he was smiling and enjoying himself. He was occupied and his mind was off of his problem and his pain. I’m very thankful for the PatientStation.”

   
“Being in the hospital isn’t generally a fun experience,” says hospital CEO Wayne Voss, “but it can be a positive one. If the PatientStation can contribute by entertaining our patients and helping them feel more connected to the outside world, then Memorial Hermann becomes an even better place for healing.”

Chief Nursing Officer Michelle Bell, RN, adds that plans are for the Pyxis PatientStation to be as useful to hospital staff as it is to the patients. “We’re very excited about the potential for process improvement down the line,” she says. “Memorial Hermann is planning to develop a secure means of accessing the hospital’s clinical applications so that physicians and nurses will be able to electronically access the patient’s chart at the bedside.”

Adds Frank Brown, a VP and CEO with Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, “We may even decide to adopt the capability to store and dispense medications at the bedside. That would save a tremendous amount of time and has the potential to enhance safety as well.”

A digital camera and microphone, already discreetly mounted above and below the screen, indicate the likelihood of even more communication services.

Though the121 beds at Memorial Hermann Memorial City Hospital received the bedside PatientStations first, the plan is for Pyxis to permeate the entire Memorial Hermann system within 18 months.

For more information, contact Media Relations.