by
Sean Ruck, Contributing Editor | November 06, 2018
From the November 2018 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Pediatric Staff with Patient
HCB News: Last time we spoke, you said the state’s budget wasn’t approved and hadn’t been for over a year. More than a year later has that problem been fixed? Did the state ever get a budget approved?
GM: We’re on four years without a budget. In the first year, we got caught off guard. In my wildest dreams, I never planned for or anticipated not getting paid. When we didn’t get paid, I pulled everyone together to discuss what we’d do if it happened again. We worked with the state and the state department and they were really good. We were able to work with them and plan to get reimbursed. I have to tell you, the people that work day-to-day are pretty good to work with. They don’t want to see hospitals close, or not-for-profits like food pantries close. They’ll try to help you as long as you try to work with them.
HCB News: Is there anything else in development you can talk about?
GM: We met with a company who flew representatives in from Japan to present a very realistic humanoid. The idea we are considering is to have this humanoid help communicate with our community since we have a number of different nationalities we serve speaking different languages.
HCB News: Not to sound disparaging, but I’m trying to get a better understanding – would this be kind of a glorified kiosk?
GM: I don’t think that’s being disparaging, I think that’s pretty close actually. So, what we’d do is tell the company what languages our community uses, and then they plug in a full vocabulary. So when a person addresses the humanoid, let’s say in Cantonese, the humanoid responds perfectly in Cantonese to help address questions. Another thing we’re looking at with a different company is virtual reality. We’re discussing a hologram that would appear in the room and communicate with the patient. We’re not looking to perform procedures remotely, or communicate clinical practices. But when a patient looks to contact someone, how great is it to have a hologram interact and then communicate with the nurse’s station? While some people are concerned about technology’s place, it’s the wave of the future in healthcare and I really believe that future.
Saint Anthony Hospital
