CLEARWATER, Fla., Jan. 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — BayCare Health System, which includes 15 hospitals throughout Tampa Bay and central Florida, is using a voice platform from Aiva Health in 2,500 hospital rooms across 14 Tampa Bay-area hospitals. Patients will experience smart rooms that allow them to connect with their care team and control devices like the television – all hands-free.
The technology, which utilizes Amazon Alexa devices, is now being deployed at St. Joseph’s Hospital-North in Lutz before being implemented system-wide by BayCare into other hospitals. BayCare hopes to have the technology in place across its entire system by the end of 2021.
According to BayCare Director of Innovation Craig Anderson, BayCare will have the largest deployment of Aiva technology for a U.S. health system.
“This is bringing consumer-friendly technology into the medical space to provide the same value we get every day from our voice-assistants like Alexa,” he said.
BayCare uses the Aiva platform to handle patient requests and provide hands-free room control.
The Aiva product is easy to use for the patient. For example, they can just say what they need and their request will be instantly routed to the BayCare iPhone of the appropriate care team or patient care technician via PatientTouch, BayCare’s clinical communication and collaboration tool.
Nurses and other staff can immediately send a voice message back to the patient, alerting them that their request has been received.
Aiva is a Los Angeles-based voice operating system that runs on Amazon’s Alexa for Business infrastructure on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help patients and assist clinicians and medical staff.
“The patient can simply ask Alexa for anything they need like a blanket or a glass of water,” Anderson said. “Aiva interprets all those requests and sends it to right person. It is a seamless connection between the patient and their care team.”
The technology was piloted at BayCare’s St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa and Winter Haven Hospital in 2019 before being put in use at St. Joseph’s Hospital-North in late 2020. Patients were highly satisfied with the Aiva technology in surveys during the pilot, Anderson said.
“Millions of Americans use voice assistants for comfort and convenience at home,” said St. Joseph’s Hospital-North president Tom Garthwaite. “As part of the consumerization of health care, people are increasingly looking for that same kind of experience during a hospital stay.”
Aiva has also integrated with the hospital room television through the GetWellNetwork patient experience platform. With a simple voice request, patients can ask Alexa to turn on a particular television channel and control the volume. Nurses are also able to use the Aiva technology to show specific education videos to patients on the television.
Anderson said BayCare plans to eventually provide hands-free control of an entire hospital room.
“Our goal is to make an entire smart hospital room,” Anderson said. “Through voice commands you can ask for anything you need, you can get any entertainment you want, control the television, Technologies that are now standard in some homes now will now be available in the hospital room.”
With the Aiva platform, patients can also ask Alexa to play music, or provide news, information, weather, trivia and sports updates. If a patient prefers not to use Alexa, they can mute the device.
“Aiva not only instantly bridged the communication between patients and the care team, it also provided more ways for them to interact,” said Anna Giles, a Winter Haven Hospital registered nurse who used the technology during the pilot.
“The ability to play games and provide a vast spectrum of music choices provided comfort to patients,” Giles said. “We’re excited to see how this technology grows to benefit patients’ well-being in the future.”
“We’re excited to partner with BayCare,” said Aiva founder and Chief Executive Officer Sumeet Bhatia, “We’ve always felt that the best health care technology does its work in the background, giving clinicians more freedom and patients more control.”
About St. Joseph’s Hospital-North
St. Joseph’s Hospital-North opened in February 2010 to bring high-quality health care services to North Tampa in an environment designed to help patients heal. Part of BayCare Health System, St. Joseph’s Hospital-North features all private patient suites and offers emergency care, surgical services, GI endoscopy, imaging, intensive care, obstetrics, cardiac catheterization, interventional radiology and more in a peaceful, relaxing and family-centered environment. Located just north of Tampa in Lutz, the all-digital, state-of-the-art facility is specially designed to make patients and visitors as comfortable as possible during their hospital experience.
About BayCare Health System
BayCare is a leading not-for-profit health care system that connects individuals and families to a wide range of services at 15 hospitals and hundreds of other convenient locations throughout the Tampa Bay and central Florida regions. Inpatient and outpatient services include acute care, primary care, imaging, laboratory, behavioral health, home care, and wellness. Our mission is to improve the health of all we serve through community-owned, health care services that set the standard for high-quality, compassionate care. For more information, visit www.BayCare.org.
About Aiva Health
Aiva is the voice operating system for better care. Our secure enterprise platform uses voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant to empower patients and seniors throughout their care journey. They enjoy more entertainment options, better control of their environment and instant two-way communication with their care team. Aiva enables existing systems in areas such as clinical communications, patient engagement, electronic health records, dining menus, work orders, building management and IoT. The company is based in Los Angeles. Investors include the Alexa Fund, Google Assistant Investment Program, Act One Ventures, Mucker Capital, Techstars and the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator. For more information, visit www.aivahealth.com.
View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/baycare-harnesses-alexa-technology-for-better-patient-experience-301202198.html
SOURCE BayCare Health System
