Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1191144
26 PATIENT EXPERIENCE Akron Children's rolls out NICU cameras for parents By Mackenzie Bean A kron (Ohio) Children's Hospital is helping families feel more connected to their infants in the neona- tal intensive care unit through live camera feeds, reported Fox 8 Cleveland. In September, Akron Children's installed 118 bed cameras in its NICUs. Donations from the nonprofit group Walk for Babies funded the initiative. Akron Children's is a regional referral center, meaning some families might live several hours away from the hos- pital. The cameras allow parents to see their child in the NICU even when they can't be at the hospital. Loved ones can access their child's live video stream through secure log-in credentials. In the first month the cameras were live, Akron Children's saw more than 12,000 logins from users as far as California and Mexico. "That shows to me and to the rest of our staff that families are interested; they want to see their babies, their families want to see their babies, and I think from talking to the families it helps make them feel more secure," Kim Fire- stone, a neonatal outreach educator at Akron Children's Hospital, told Fox 8 Cleveland. n Cleveland Clinic partners with Google Assistant By Jackie Drees C leveland Clinic partnered with Google As- sistant to allow users to receive health and wellness content directly from the digital voice assistant. Four things to know: 1. The feature is available on Google Home and Google Assistant-enabled devices, including phones, speakers, wearables and TVs. 2. Google Assistant will respond to voice com- mands such as "Hey Google, ask Cleveland Clinic for today's tips," and "Hey Google, talk to Cleve- land Clinic." 3. With the voice commands, individuals can access up to three new tips in the following categories: nutrition, common concerns and healthy habits. 4. The Google Assistant app will also provide users a text summary and hyperlink to the correspond- ing Health Essentials blog post the content is pulled from. n Virtual reality video eases kids' anxiety before chest X-rays By Anuja Vaidya A n immersive, virtual reality experience to educate pediatric patients before a chest X-ray helped reduce their anxiety and distress as well as the procedure time, according to a study published in JAMA Pediatrics. Researchers conducted the study at a hospital in South Korea. They studied 112 children, ages 4 to 8, who had chest X-rays from July 20- Sept. 11, 2018. Ninety-nine children were included in the final analysis. The patients were divided into two groups. One group of 50 patients received simple verbal instructions; the other group of 49 patients were shown a three-minute virtual reality video explaining the chest X-ray process. The mean score for anxiety and distress and need for parental presence were lower among patients who saw the virtual reality video, compared to patients who did not. Also, procedure time for the virtual reality group was 55.1 seconds, compared to 75 seconds for the other group. The mean parental satisfaction scores were higher for the virtual reality group. n Colorado rehab hospital lets patients practice airline boarding at airport By Mackenzie Bean P atients recovering from serious spinal cord inju- ries at Englewood, Colo.-based Craig Hospital took a field trip Oct. 17 to practice navigating an airport and boarding a plane, reported CBS Denver. The rehabilitation hospital brings a group of pa- tients and their family members monthly to Denver International Airport through a partnership with United Airlines. The patients practice navigating the busy airport in their wheelchairs, going through security and trans- ferring from their chairs to an airplane seat. The initiative allows them to feel more comfortable with flying before they travel home from the hospi- tal or take trips with their families. n