Video Guidance Receives 2013 Leaders in Health Care Award
<0> Shore to Shore Communications, Inc. for Video GuidanceGail Shore, 952-925-6102 </0>
Video Guidance (), a leading strategic company, has received a 2013 “Leaders in Health Care Award” from . The award recognizes Minnesota companies for leading the charge in the state’s world-class health care industry. Video Guidance was honored for its innovative video conferencing system at University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital that visually connects young patients with their families to lessen emotional suffering caused by separation.
“Families of hospitalized children are not always able to be at their sides. Some children remain in the hospital for long periods of time and some parents live many miles away, including out of the country,” said Jason Albrecht, child-family life specialist and pediatric palliative care coordinator at University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital, part of Fairview Health Services. “The desired result of the new video conference systems is to lessen emotional suffering caused by that separation.”
Video Guidance’s stationary and mobile video conference initiative includes 29 in-room systems (with two more rooms to follow) dispersed between the children’s hospital’s fourth, fifth and sixth floors. Additionally, three mobile video conferencing carts will primarily float between the pediatric intensive care units and neonatal intensive care units, but will also serve patients throughout the hospital.
Fairview Health Services also has multiple video conferencing units installed to address various applications at its Minneapolis locations, which are separated by the Mississippi River. The units visually connect a parent admitted to University of Minnesota Medical Center to a child admitted to University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital when both are patients. For example, a parent donating an organ may be a patient at the medical center and a child receiving the transplanted organ is at the children’s hospital. Now they can communicate via video to see, share and support one another. This also enables a parent/family caregiver serving at one bedside to remain connected with what is happening at the other.
In addition, the new video conferencing systems allow the doctors and nursing staff caring for the patient to visually communicate with the parents who are at home, work, or traveling nationally or internationally. Families are often forced to divide care-giving roles between hospital and home. Video conference technology will help the parent at home actively engage in care planning and feel less separated. Other creative video conferencing applications include equipment in schools that connect patients with their class rooms, a capability funded by the Bloomington, Minn.-based Jostens Foundation.
Users simply need to have a PC or Mac with an internal or external camera, as well as the ability to connect to the internet. Video Guidance’s VG Connect Desktop Services features secure video conferencing software installed on a laptop or desktop computer.
As an independent provider of , Video Guidance partners with the world's leading audio/visual equipment manufacturers to implement strategic customized solutions. The customer-focused company differentiates itself by providing “best of breed” technologies and unlimited applications to help its customers communicate more effectively and exceed their business goals.
“We are honored to serve University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital and its staff, and its patients and their family members to help bring them closer together with video,” said Michael Werch, president of Video Guidance. “This newly installed technology now affords these patients and families to remain visually connected, offering greater emotional support for everyone.”