Hospital TVs provide numerous benefits for patients and their families—from providing welcomed entertainment during difficult times to serving as the source of relevant health-related information and much more—as well as for your staff and facilities. To choose the right healthcare TVs for your needs, consider your goals, intended usage, and the number of patient rooms, lobbies, and more. If you’re ready to talk about your specific requirements, please contact our experts online or call 800-359-6741.
Overview of Hospital TVs
As the name indicates, certain televisions are intended for use in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Hospital grade TVs are designed and built with the patient being front of mind, and their construction must follow strict Underwriters Laboratory (UL) regulations.
Healthcare TVs must be rugged and reliable, continuing to operate well during heavy usage hours while being safe, even in oxygen-enriched environments—and have features like grounded plugs, all-pole power switches, and circuit boards that are shielded to prevent any interference from other facility electronics. They should be easy to use while also being customizable for your healthcare facility’s needs.
They go beyond being sturdy versions of consumer televisions, also containing nurse-call features that, when patients communicate, automatically and temporarily pause audio to allow for clear two-way conversations.
Healthcare TVs use high quality electronic components that allow them to work at lower temperatures. Because they dissipate heat well, they don’t overheat, which reduces the risk of sustaining burns. Plus, TV cabinets are flame resistant and constructed to extinguish themselves in case of fire.
They come with antimicrobial coatings to keep liquids out, which reduces the likelihood that germs can breed there, created to be easily and thoroughly cleaned.
At MDM, we provide healthcare facilities with this technology from trusted top brands, including PDi TVs and LG TVs.
Benefits of Hospital TVs
Nowadays, people are seemingly connected to the internet throughout the day, thanks to computers, smartphones, and more. People are used to communicating, gathering information, and accessing entertainment at the touch of a button. When someone is admitted for a hospital stay, then, it simply makes sense to leverage that fact to seamlessly connect, educate, and engage them through the use of already-familiar technology.
Plus, when someone is admitted, they often experience significant levels of stress. Besides concern over potential diagnoses and treatments and associated pain, being hospitalized can be an isolating experience, one that’s been magnified by COVID. Loved ones may not be able to visit as easily or frequently or stay as long while medical personnel are busier than ever.
Read More: The Importance of Child-Friendly Hospital TVs
The technology of healthcare TVs provides significant mitigation of these stressors, empowering patients to receive relevant information, communicate with the nurse station, cafeteria and more while also providing entertainment that makes the hospital room feel more homey and offering a welcomed distraction from health-related concerns.
A patient’s ability to view educational materials, order food, and manage television viewing also frees up staff time, reducing their workload and allowing them to focus more on other patient care initiatives.
Educate, Engage, and Entertain With Hospital Grade TVs
The term “TVs” doesn’t begin to cover the value of the interactive technology that can be made available in each patient’s room. Originally, televisions were message-out forms of visual content delivery with patients watching network/cable programming. Today, hospital grade TVs are really platforms for transformative technology that allows you to provide interactive information that can boost patient satisfaction and loyalty levels while providing efficiencies that staff appreciate.
Your healthcare organization can provide patient-specific information that matches with a person’s current health literacy in a language they understand. As their knowledge increases, this can allow them to feel more empowered about participating in their own health outcomes and frees up medical teams to spend more time providing the healthcare services that only they can.
It’s important not to underestimate the importance of also providing entertainment to patients and any visitors during hospital stays. This allows a patient to enjoy a sports game that friends and family members watch at home and feel less left out; watch movies; and keep up with their favorite television shows. As they are entertained, this can contribute to their overall satisfaction levels with the care provided.
So, how can you choose the right healthcare TVs for your facilities?
Evaluating Hospital Grade TVs
First, ensure that the televisions are UL certified according to medical safety standards. Ths specific standard for healthcare TVs is UL 60065 Annex Q. Next, envision how a patient would use the television. How can usage be especially convenient? In what ways can you leverage technology to benefit a patient beyond providing television programming?
In a healthcare setting, it’s crucial that TVs, remotes, and more can be effectively cleaned to prevent the transfer of pathogens. So, inquire about how well a television set will stand up to regular vigorous sanitation for maximum hygiene.
Because no two hospital systems are exactly alike, find out how well the hardware and software (more about those components later in this post) can be integrated into your overall technology. How can the installation be configured and customized to dovetail with your technology needs? Will the company providing the televisions provide installation services? Ongoing support?
Ensure that the equipment is ruggedly constructed, able to withstand heavy usage and dissipate heat effectively for ongoing use. Ask if the television set is low voltage and what protections exist if there is an electrical current leak.
Here’s another factor. As televisions increase in their capacity to deliver information and become integrated into other technologies, they need highly secure protections against cyber hacking to ensure HIPAA compliance. Find out about privacy settings, security backups, and more.
Finally, ask about warranties. What will the manufacturer guarantee? What kind of support will you receive from the installers?
Hardware, Software, and Mounting
As you’re comparing television systems for your healthcare facilities, evaluate each of these three aspects.
Hardware
Hardware that may have been sufficient a few years ago may be outdated now because of the rapid technological improvements. When you choose hardware, consider if the components will allow for efficient usage today with enough processing speed and RAM—and then consider what you’ll want for upcoming years, as well. How clear is image quality?
Software
Software systems power modern hospital TVs, and it’s important to choose a system that’s powerful enough to handle what you need with intuitive usage. Consider how patients who are hard of hearing or visually impaired can use the technology and ask about how seamlessly software can be updated and how security patches are applied.
Mounting
For easy viewing, the proper mounting options are vital. Mounting equipment must be durable yet flexible with comfortable ergonomic capabilities. Quality mounting hardware allows facilities to angle the television sets for easy viewing while allowing nurses to modify the positioning as needed. Patients should not need to reposition the remote to use the television even after the angle is changed because they do not need to point the remote at the television set.
TVs should be hung high enough on a wall to prevent any inconvenience when healthcare workers, patients, or visitors walk in that area of the room.
Additional Conveniences
Patients in hospital beds may not have significant mobility, perhaps because of IVs and other monitoring equipment, plus pain; casts; and more. Healthcare TVs therefore come with attached remotes that makes them easy to find and challenging to lose. Although that may seem like a minor convenience, to the hospital patient, it can make a huge difference. This also allows them easy access to the remote when they need to call for a nurse; even if they don’t actually need to do so, this ability can be quite reassuring to the patient and their loved ones.
Pillow speakers make it easy for patients to hear programming and educational material without needing to turn up sound to high levels. This means they can talk to nurses and more when the personnel enter the room without typically needing to lower the sound.
PDi Hospital TVs
PDi hospital TVs provide enhanced entertainment for patients in the following television sizes: 24”, 32”, 43”, and 55”. UL-listed and specifically designed for healthcare facilities, PDi TVs provide features to satisfy patients and help staff.
- Patients:
- Receive more HD channels to enjoy
- Are empowered to control their own set through multi-bed codes
- Appreciate volume limiters
- Benefit from easy to use pillow speaker controls (numeric or navigational)
- Staff and facilities:
- Appreciate how the patient self-serve aspects free up their time
- Enjoy ease of operation and upgrading
- Benefit from three-year warranties and can extend warranties to a five-year option
- Enjoy more noise control capabilities
PDi hospital TVs leverage the power of Pro:Idiom to provide both high quality delivery and security with HD digital programming. Pro:Idiom allows healthcare facilities to encrypt television signals to thwart hackers.
LG Hospital Grade TVs
LG hospital grade TVs are also built specifically for the hospital environment, available in these sizes: 24”, 28”, 32”, and 43”. They feature a built-in pillow speaker port and built-in MPI port and come with expanded pillow speaker compatibility. Pillow speakers are designed for rigorous use in patient rooms and can be easily sanitized.
Because of USB cloning, you can quickly and easily copy your preferred settings to all of the facility’s LG television sets through a fully automated process that only requires a typical USB device.
These televisions come with a 50,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio to provide patients with high quality images along with a two-year limited warranty on parts and labor.
LG smart hospital grade TVs are UL hospital-grade listed, RoHS compliant, and California Energy Commission (CEC) compliant. They also have built-in pillow speaker ports and MPI ports as well as built-in pillow speaker compatibility. They are available in these sizes: 32”, 43”, 49”, and 55”.
Hospital ROI
Although upgrading hospital television equipment is an investment into the facilities, it is one of the most straightforward and cost effective ways to boost patient satisfaction and help to build their loyalty. This is always true but, during the pandemic era, this lifeline is more important than ever before because of more restrictive policies about visitation and increased times of isolation. The television sets in patient rooms connect them to the outside world conveniently, efficiently, and effectively.
Key Considerations
Besides choosing the optimal television brands and sizes, it’s important to use the right vendor for your healthcare technology needs. Factors to consider include:
- Quality of products
- Help with selection
- Pricing structures
- Installation services
- Support services
- Industry experience
- Convenience
MDM Commercial has all you need and more.
MDM Commercial for Hospital Grade TVs
MDM is the experienced choice and we offer a wide range of technology products that will fit the needs of your facilities for today and tomorrow, such as the LG and PDi hospital TVs described above—including ones that can be used in oxygen-enriched environments.
In addition to the televisions, we offer:
Our expert team will provide you with personalized service. We’ll discuss your facility’s needs together, providing advice to guide you along the process and help you to customize your choices.
No matter which products you want and need, you’ll benefit as we leverage significant buying power with the result being highly competitive pricing for your healthcare organization. Then, our highly experienced installation team can seamlessly install products and systems and can also manage your additional initiatives with your televisions, broadband internet, digital media, and content/graphics.
MDM Commercial truly offers end to end services, including ongoing support, as a one-stop shop: from consulting to shopping, selection, installation, and support. We’ve provided healthcare TV systems across the United States for decades, including in hospitals, clinics, and other medical facilities plus in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and more.
Our customer service is second to none with your convenience front of mind in all we do. Contact our team today!