A Major Referral Hospital Gets a Major Makeover

The staff at St. Bernards Medical Center live by their mission statement to provide “Christ-like healing to the community through education, treatment, and health services.” Located in Jonesboro, Arkansas, St. Bernards Medical Center is a major referral hospital, praised for its ability to provide advanced treatment and medical services across four centers of excellence: Heart Care, Cancer Treatment, Women’s and Children’s Services, and Senior Services. As a top tier medical facility, St. Bernards utilizes only the most advanced and innovative technology for every aspect of their operations.

Serving as one of St. Bernards’ centers of excellence, the Ben E. Owens Cancer Center was built in response to a need recognized in the community. They are not only committed to providing the best cancer treatment, but understand the importance of accommodating patients and their families. With this in mind, St. Bernards sought to reconstruct their entire facility by providing employees with the most efficient solutions and processes to ensure patients have the most comforting experience possible.

Challenges

The staff at the Ben E. Owens Cancer Center lacked confidence in their AV systems. The technology within their conference rooms was inconsistent and led to communication breakdowns during meetings. Video conferencing also became problematic and lead to a decrease in productivity during the staff’s weekly conference calls. As a result, they needed to find a solution that allowed them to display multiple modalities on various screens to staff members on and off campus.

The Ben E. Owens Cancer Center was also looking for a solution that would allow all the digital signage displays and patient televisions located throughout the facility to be controlled from one location. Previously, in order to adjust individual televisions and displays, staff would have to do it manually. Redesigning the management of this process would provide the nurses and staff with tools to ease their workload and give them more time for their patients.

With their growing need for a reliable solution, St. Bernards knew it was time to upgrade their existing system. They reached out to Ryan Heringer, President and Owner, and Jimmy Smith, Operations Manager at Sound Concepts Inc. to assist them with making their vision become reality.

Recommendations

1. Create interactive conference rooms using reliable equipment to deliver a flawless collaboration between both on and off site members

2. Install equipment within conference rooms that pair easily with high quality microphones

3. Implement a solution to allow the staff to control multiple displays and televisions from one location

Before the renovation, there were concerns regarding the integration of new technology. Kevin Hawley, Cancer Services Director at St. Bernards Medical Center, wanted to ensure the new solution was secure and reliable. With Crestron technology already present in multiple buildings across campus, St. Bernards and Sound Concepts decided to move forward with using Crestron solutions for this project to maintain uniformity and reduce the learning curve for employees.

Thanks to Sound Concepts and Crestron, the Ben E. Owens Cancer Center was able to integrate custom AV platforms throughout their conference rooms, fusion bays, private rooms and lobbies. The project took a total of nine months to complete from beginning to end, including renovation of the building and the full installation process. Now, Crestron’s 4K DigitalMedia™ technology allows meeting attendees to share and distribute content making it easy to communicate from any point in the room. With the new solution in place there is no need to constantly configure the lighting, audio and orientation of the content on the screen during conferences, which leads to a dramatic increase in productivity.

“The successful completion of this project offered us the opportunity to provide our patients, many of whom come to us from rural communities, with a multidisciplinary approach that is often only available at major metropolitan facilities,” said Hawley.

 Throughout the facility, the staff has the ability to control each television from a centralized location using a 5” Crestron touch screen. Sound Concepts created a custom interface, which features a map that includes all of the displays and televisions throughout the Ben E. Owens Cancer Center. This interface makes changing the channel, turning televisions on-and-off, and updating hospital announcements easy from one location.

“Working with Crestron allowed us to give St. Bernards Medical Center exactly what they wanted. The level of customization Crestron provides allows our team to develop and install custom solutions that are specifically designed for our customers and deliver long lasting results.”

Jimmy Smith, Operations Manager - Sound Concepts Inc.

Results

Following their renovation at the Ben E. Owens Cancer Center, the staff was amazed by how simple and straightforward the Crestron technology was to use. The newly integrated technology created a productive work environment with easy-to-navigate signage and television displays, simple collaboration solutions in all three conference rooms, and state-of-the-art fusion bays. Each fusion bay has been redesigned and now provides patients access to a personal television equipped with cable and two pairs of headphones for them and a guest to enjoy entertainment while receiving their transfusion treatments. Overall, the tremendous effort that Crestron, Sound Concepts, Kevin Hawley and the rest of the installation crew put forward contributed to rewarding results at St. Bernards Cancer Center