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 From her sixth-floor bed at Memorial Medical Center, the 67-year-old
Springfield resident was able to see her daughter, who lives in
Florida, for the first time in almost a year, thanks to an iPad
provided free by Memorial during her recent stay.
“It was so fun,” she said of the FaceTime calls with her daughter on
the iPad. “I had never used one before.”
And for her daughter, who used an iPhone during the video
conversations, the experience was uplifting.
“Just to be able to see her face — it brightened her day, and it did
mine, too,” said Patricia Szydlowski, 46, who grew up in Edinburg
and now lives in Port Charlotte, Florida.
Memorial Health System made 110 iPads and iPhones available to
patients at its central Illinois hospitals in Springfield, Decatur,
Jacksonville, Taylorville and Lincoln so inpatients could use the
devices to connect with loved ones during the pandemic, according to
Tiffany Otten, system director for patient experience.
The total includes iPads that were donated by Decatur Public
Schools, 55 that were purchased by the health system and some that
were being used for a different program, Otten said.
The most popular use of the Apple devices are apps that allow for
video calls, she said.
With the temporary suspension of visiting hours during the pandemic,
the Apple devices offer options for patients who don’t already have
access to such technology, Otten said. Her staff members have
assisted patients in programming phone numbers and using the
devices.
Memorial patients and their families have been “very appreciative,”
Otten said.
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Leahy, a widow and former Horace Mann insurance claims processor, said she
doesn’t consider herself tech-savvy. In fact, she doesn’t own a cell phone, and
she said she rarely opens her laptop computer.
But at the suggestion of her doctor, Springfield Clinic vascular surgeon Dr.
Stephen Ryan, Leahy requested an iPad. With some instruction from Memorial
patient-experience liaison Jeremy Holmes, Leahy was making FaceTime calls on her
own. She said she was surprised how easy it was.
Leahy said the video calls were welcome during a stay when her lower-left leg
was amputated because of complications from Type 2 diabetes. After the hospital
stay, she was discharged to Lewis Memorial Christian Village in Springfield,
where she is recovering and undergoing rehabilitation.
Szydlowski said she told her mother in one of the FaceTime calls, “‘We’re not
able to embrace, but we are going to embrace technology.’”
Leahy and Szydlowski said they were so happy with the video calls that they plan
to acquire an iPad for Leahy’s use at home.
“To actually get to see your loved one is priceless,” said Szydlowski, a bank
employee.
Many doctors, nurses and physical and occupational therapists are connecting
with families through the new iPads when they stop by Memorial patients’ rooms,
Otten said. That way, relatives can be more involved in the care of family
members, she said.
“For relatives not to be there to advocate is so hard,” she said. “This is
connecting them to the care team again, and that is a huge difference and a
comfort for the family.”
[Dean Olsen | Media Relations
Consultant | Communications
Memorial Health System] |
