The Interior Health Authority (IHA) has signed off on providing bedside televisions.
Vernon resident Pam Duffield-Harding and her mom, 94, found out the hard way.
In a letter to The Morning Star written Jan. 10, Duffield-Harding was visiting her mom, who had been at Vernon Jubilee Hospital for four weeks. She discovered the same day that VJH was no longer providing TV services bedside or at lounges within the facility.
IHA ended providing HealthHub bedside entertainment services and/or TV rentals on Dec. 31. Now, patients can enjoy entertainment using their own cell phones, laptops, or tablets with free wifi at all IHA sites.
“Interior Health is transitioning in-hospital room entertainment to a bring-your-own-device model, replacing the beside TV,” said Richard Harding, IHA spokesperson. “The transition reflects that most Canadians are now using digital devices, so we are allowing patients to use their own Smartphones, laptops or tablets for entertainment during their stay, which allows greater comfort, more hours, and more flexibility.”
TV is a vital link for people to the community and the outside world especially the elderly, said Duffield-Harding. The ability to watch the news or their favourite sports team help keeps them engaged and not isolated which can lead to confusion and disorientation.
“To assume people will bring their expensive devices to the hospital when they are told not to bring valuables to hospital due to risk of theft is asking for trouble,” she said.
Those patients who do not have a laptop or phone – Duffield-Harding’s mom is one such person – will be able to use a free tablet with pre-programmed channels from TubiTV, which is a free streaming platform with a wide variety of movies and TV shows.
“If a patient does not have a personal device, there will be some tablets for personal use,” said Harding. “Each site will determine tablet availablilty based on patient population and work flows. We will continue to access utilization of these devices and the uptake as necessary, and we will add additional devices as required.”
The move to the bring your own device (BYOD) model has already been enacted in some smaller IHA facilities, said Harding, but the transition began during the pandemic.
Pre-COVID, patients would have to rent a television to be placed at their bedside. That was discontinued during the pandemic, and the bedside TVs, he said, had limitations as many did not support entertainment apps available on personal devices.
The transition to BYOD, said Harding, is being expanded across the health region “to support cost-saving, freeing up resources for other patient-care practices, and reflecting the broader shift to how people access their entertainment.
“A substantial amount of work been has been done to upgrade the wifi structure at sites,” said Harding. “We’ve been adding additional receiving devices to emit the signal around the units to cover off any dead spots.”
The care team on a patient’s floor will be able to help someone use a tablet for a first time, and a user-friendly guide has been created that will be given to patients and their families.
The move to the BYOD model is permanent.
“With most transitions, people need time to adjust to the changes made, and we’ll be there to continue to support our patients and families, and to support our care staff in this implementation,” said Harding.
“If people have concerns, we’re open to hearing and listening to them…listening to patient voices is obviously a critical part of within our work at Interior Health.”