Feature Profile published
in Point of View magazine
Women
& Infants and Video
~~~
My grandmother was a nurse, my mother was a nurse, my older
sister was a nurse and I’m not sure which generation
would have ceased to be surprised and simply taken a “Media
Center” in a hospital for granted. And, given my involvement
with the media, I’m moderately embarrassed to admit
that until a few years ago I had no idea that some hospitals
around the nation actually produce their own programs and,
furthermore, market this programing nationwide.
Women
& Infants in Providence, Rhode Island, is one such hospital.
Founded in 1884 as the Providence Lying In Hospital it was
exclusively a maternity hospital where women could deliver
their babies. The hospital moved into its present facility
in June of 1986 and today boasts one of the finest reputations
worldwide in not only obstetrics and women’s health
care but also in newborn intensive care. Women & Infants
delivers approximately 9,000 babies a year, and cares for
some 1,200 newborns in its Special Care Nursery. Many of
these babies have been sent from other hospitals around
Southeastern New England to receive the specialized care
for which the hospital is so well known.
| “By producing their
own programs Women & Infants is not only assured
of getting exactly what it wants, but the hospital
then owns the programs.” |
|
And yes, I delivered my second child at Women
& Infants. It was while I was recuperating and flipping
through the in house programming guide, that I became curious
about where the programs came from. In my search I went
from an airy room on the fifth floor to the basement of
the building to find the Media Center. What I discovered,
to my surprise, was a very sophisticated facility already
bursting at its seams, and that the programs immediately
available to patients on the hospital’s in house network
only count for a fraction of what the hospital produces.
Their media output is really quite astonishing.
Women & Infants strong commitment to healthcare
education and training is longstanding. This commitment
is evident not only within the confines of the hospital
itself, with internal training, but in the community at
large. Affiliated with the prestigious Brown University
Program in Medicine the hospital’s education outreach
stretches into schools, community groups, and particularly
to the immigrant and refugee communities which, in Rhode
Island, number among the largest in the country. The hospital’s
research revealed that within these communities video is
an extremely acceptable educational tool. Says Renee Neri,
Director of Patient Education and Community Liaison, “Often
in unsettled and wartorn countries video is very prominent
because this is the way a government communicates with its
people. They send propaganda out on videotape so the people
are used to watching it. Even the poorest homes would have
a VCR.”
| “Why does Women
& Infants produce its own programs?" |
|
The reasons for utilizing video are
many and varied. Blue Cross, for instance, mandates that
a well woman should deliver her baby and leave the hospital
within two days. That’s not much time for a woman
who’s been through the life changing experience of
delivering a baby to pick up the vital information she needs
to care for her baby and herself upon returning home. The
in house TV channel supplies programming that addresses
these and many other health issues not only for women of
childbearing age, but older. Subjects such as “maintaining
femininity after a hysterectomy” and “coping
with menopause” are everyday programming.
There is also a crying need for video and
multi media internally to assist physicians in peer training,
resident training, nurse training, for keeping up with healthcare
trends, and for imparting information about new areas of
healthcare such as Gynecologic Oncology. The need for video
is rapidly increasing. Even the public relations department
now uses video during its annual meeting to show the Board
of Trustees and staff the current status of the hospital
and also the direction in which it is moving.
Using
video also addresses the problem of limited literacy in
the many communities the hospital interacts with, and has
proven to be a cost effective and efficient tool with which
to communicate healthcare issues.
But why does Women & Infants produce its
own programs?
“Because,” says Jane Suvajian,
the hospital’s Media Specialist and the guiding force
behind the Media Center, “Women & Infants is so
far ahead of other healthcare facilities in developing new
areas of healthcare, and new techniques and technology there’s
really nothing commercially available that keeps up with
us, or meets our needs.” By producing their own programs
Women & Infants is not only assured of getting exactly
what it wants, but the hospital then owns the programs.
This gives it the freedom to market them, loan them, or
even give them away without having to answer to anybody.
If sold the programs are sold at a fraction above cost because
the hospital’s commitment is to education. The goal
is to bring notoriety to the hospital and because of the
unique non profit status of the hospital whatever profit
that is made on programs is channeled straight back into
production.
| “Even the poorest
homes have a VCR.” |
|
The Media Center was created in 1981 to respond
to all hospital audio/visual needs servicing a number of
different departments within the hospital Nursing Education,
Medical Education, and Patient Education. The Center concentrates
it’s efforts on centralizing all audio/visual resources,
gathering material from around the country for preview,
shooting internal medical procedures for in house lectures
or documentation, maintaining and servicing the audio/visual
equipment, and maintaining the hospital’s TV network
which, as of this January has been upgraded to cable. And
it’s not unusual to find Suvajian “scrubbing
up” to go into an operating room and shoot a surgical
procedure which is then transmitted live to a conference
room for teaching purposes.
It is the department of Patient Education,
however, which produces the bulk of the hospital’s
original programming. 16mm and 35mm film has been used internally
at the hospital since it first became commercially available,
but it wasn’t until 1976 that this department began
to use videotape, and in 1987 began to seriously generate
broadcast quality videotaped programs. Using an independent
production team, headed by Dolphin Communications, Patient
Education first produced a series of nine videotapes in
seven languages for patients of limited literacy. The series
was funded by the Rhode Island Foundation, and focused on
such topics as a visit to a hospital, childcare, mother
care, Hepatitis B, lead poisoning, tuberculosis, and sexually
transmitted diseases.
Multi language production is a necessity for the hospital.
In fact, “. . .the Civil Rights Laws,” explains
Neri, “require that we provide equal access to care
regardless of a person’s ability to communicate in
English.” Very often the whole area of bi lingual
and multi lingual education is driven by Federal Mandate.
The hospital can document that at any one time approximately
20% of its patients don’t speak English. This places
a tremendous strain on the nursing and teaching staff which
is alleviated somewhat by the existence of videotapes in
a choice of languages. The seven languages used in production
are English, Spanish, Portugese, Hmong, Laotian, Vietnamese
and Cambodian. This multi language production poses some
interesting challenges for the producing staff because few
people on the team speak anything other than English and
maybe some Spanish. To ensure complete accuracy the producer
uses two translators who are required to check each other’s
work. The multi-language nature of this and other projects
creates other production challenges, one of which is the
almost exclusive use of voice-over narration rather than
lip sync while still maintaining audience interest.
| “Within these refugee
communities video is an extremely acceptable educational
tool.” |
|
Because of the nature of patient education
the programs must attract and reach a variety of races,
cultural groups and ages, so a “people grid”
is used to ensure equal visibility is given to all these
different groups. But particularly challenging to the producers
is the intimate nature of some of the programs. People feel
a natural reluctance to appear on camera to discuss subjects
such as sexually transmitted diseases in their own community
in the event that they are seen by others who know them.
The subject matter of the programs produced by Patient Education
is varied. A recent project, funded by a parent group, highlighted
the hospital’s Special Care Nursery. “Your Baby
In Special Care” was geared towards parents whose
babies were in need of intensive care. The program sought
to alleviate fears and anxieties about the nursery and why
their child had need of it. The videotape also demonstrated
to parents how they could actively participate in the care
of their newborn even though confined to the Nursery.
Another project just completed focused on
teen pregnancy and parenting. “I Got You Babe”
helps young parents learn how to care for their babies,
concentrating particularly on child safety. Before production
began the producers formed a focus group of teenage parents
to help find the correct pitch for the program. They found
that using peers speaking naturally on camera had more of
an impact than using actors in a scripted setting. Neri
emphasizes that they are “very open to learning different
ways of communicating with (their) audience” because
clearly the most important result of any production is audience
participation and education. This program is shown in teen
parenting classes, in schools, and is also loaned to teen
parents for home use if need be.
| “Their media output
is really quite astonishing.” |
|
Patient Education is building a reputation
for quality programming that extends beyond the hospital
and non hospital clients are approaching them for production.
The department recently completed a series of three tapes
for the Rhode Island Department of Health (again in seven
languages) for use with the MIV testing process. State law
now requires that all pregnant women, all people going for
family planning information, anyone diagnosed with a sexually
transmitted disease, and others, be offered the opportunity
to be tested for AIDS. The consent process is so complex
that the RIDH felt a need to put a good part of it on video.
The tapes are not supposed to replace human interaction
and are designed to accompany the consent booklet pausing
at certain points for the viewer to ask questions.
Yet another project in the pipeline is for
the State agency for Mental Health Rehabilitation and Hospitals.
The goal here Is to produce programs that help parents and
foster parents care for drug affected babies whose needs
are so unique.
“We don’t know where video production
will go but we’re keeping all of our options open,”
said Neri energetically. “We’re bitten by the
bug.” And by the looks of things the Media Center
is due for relocation, to larger premises.
