Beebe Healthcare offers therapeutic TV program for patients
It’s fair to say being admitted to the hospital is at the least somewhat stressful. But Beebe Healthcare is trying to ease the process with a new program, a TV program called the Care Channel.
Mary Beth Palkon-Krytzer is a nurse at Beebe healthcare and because of her and other nurses, the Care Channel became a reality. After seeing a similar feature in another hospital, it hit her. Soothing music and images was just the thing needed to help her patients.
47 ABC spoke with Palkon-Krytzer and she says, “It was needed here at Beebe. Music is a very powerful agent in everyone’s lives.”
The Care Channel is produced by Healing Healthcare Systems. It’s built upon research that looked at the effects music and nature have on patient outcomes. But getting the channel at Beebe was no easy task. The entire process took 3 years.
After the idea spread quickly around the hospital, most nurses liked the idea so Palkon-Krytzer wrote a letter to the CEO of the hospital asking for it. In March of this year, they got their answer. Now each room with a television has access to the care channel 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
Palkon-Krytzer says, “What patients really enjoy, which I’m getting feedback, is that there’s nothing that comes on it other than music so they’re not talking about weather, not talking about news, they’re not talking about advertisements it’s just purely music like this that goes on for 24 hours.”
One patient who really enjoys it? William Dec. After being admitted to the hospital just last week, Palkon-Krytzer introduced the channel to Dec.
47 ABC also spoke with Dec who says, “It was just soothing and relaxing to me. If you have any pain it sort of takes it away, almost puts you to sleep but it’s so relaxing and I would recommend it to anybody.”
Palkon-Krytzer says, “Sometimes you don’t need to watch TV, just music can have a soothing effect can bring you to another time can help you relax.” Palkon-Krytzer also adds that the music can also benefit elderly dementia patients. She says it might bring them back to a better part of their life with the music and they might remember something. The Care Channel is used in over 800 hospitals and healthcare systems.
