After I wrote an earlier blog post about hospitals using Skype in the birthing suite, I was contacted by Salina Wang of Halifax Health in Daytona Beach, Florida. It turns out they have allowed parents to use Skype in their birthing suite, and published a story on the subject in their Health Matters magazine (Summer 2010). Salina sent me a link to the story and gave me permission to reprint it here in the blog. If you’d like to see the story in the Flipbook online, go to http://www.halifaxhealth.org/flipbooks/healthmattersq2/flipviewerxpress.html.
Here’s the story from Health Matters:
Justyna Mueller and Nir Elimelech may now be happy to call Daytona Beach home, but when Justyna moved from Poland six years ago and Nir moved from Israel seven years ago, the idea of not having family nearby was a little disheartening.
However, technology has allowed the couple to stay connected while miles away from the ones they love. And when they were expecting their first child, the couple depended on technology to share one of the most important experiences of their lives with loved ones.
Justyna and Nir used Skype – a software application that allows users to make web-based phone calls – to video conference throughout the process. This was nothing new to the couple, who have used Skype almost daily for the past five years to communicate with family members and friends back at home.
“We weren’t 100 percent sure ahead of time we were going to be able to use it, but when it came time no one at the hospital had a problem and it worked out well,” said Justyna. “Our physician and all the nurses were really supportive of having the computer on and Skyping during labor.”
When deciding where to deliver, one of the first questions the couple asked was whether Internet access was available. So when they found out wireless Internet service was available to pat ient s at Halifax Health they were excited and knew it would be great for using Skype during their stay. And in February when Justyna went into labor, her father and other loved ones didn’t have to wait long to get a glimpse of baby Nathan Ben.
“The wireless access was great. Once he was born, we were able to move our laptop to show the baby on the web cam,” said Justyna. “So when he was only a few minutes old, family and friends from all over the world could see him.”
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To check out my earlier blog post on hospitals using Skype, go to http://thehealthcaremarketer.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/hospital-allow-skype-in-the-birthing-suite/.
Post by Dan Dunlop, The Healthcare Marketer
