June 18, 2020

Those who work in healthcare settings know this: You will have to make personal sacrifices. There are many, but perhaps the most common sacrifice is time. It comes with the territory. In my role of VP of Applications for a multi-hospital healthcare system, I’m fortunate enough that when I sacrifice time with my family at home, it is spent well on making a difference in the lives of our patients. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has taken time with others away from many of us for the benefit of safety. In many healthcare settings, it has meant that patients are alone during times they crave family support. We recognized this and instituted a new program called Face Time for Families to bring patients together with the ones they love — virtually.


Face Time for Families is as simple as it sounds. We’d purchase iPads and our caregivers would facilitate “virtual visits” for patients and their families. Still, this is healthcare, so there were logistical hurdles to overcome. Patient safety, patient experience, regulatory requirements, etc., all needed to be addressed.

HOW WILL WE ENSURE THE DEVICES ARE CLEANED PROPERLY TO AVOID SPREADING THE VIRUS?

WHAT DEPARTMENT WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR MANAGING THE DEVICE WHEN NEEDED?

HOW DO WE OPERATIONALIZE THE PROCESS OF SCHEDULING AND DELIVERING THESE LIMITED RESOURCES TO THE CARE SETTING WHEN NEEDED?

WHAT APPS DO WE NEED LOADED TO THE DEVICE? ZOOM, TEAMS, GOTOMEETING, FACETIME, OTHERS?

HOW WILL THE DEVICE CONNECT TO THE INTERNET?

What Types of Patients Will be Utilizing This Service?

Patients with COVID-19 and patients who have not contracted the disease? Visits are restricted or limited for all hospital patients.

The patient could be a COVID patient seeing their family members for the very last time.

So, we got to work. As with all projects, our team formed a plan and assigned resources to manage the program. We purchased the devices and medical grade cases to store them, installed the apps, tested the apps and connectivity. Within a week, we rolled out the devices. All things considered, piece of cake. Family members from all over could reach their loved ones in our hospital.

One month later, I was one of those family members.

We call it the $40-million-dollar porch. It’s a big old screened-in porch that wraps around our home. Throughout the spring, summer, and fall, you can spot our family on the porch for all sorts of gatherings.

One day, a month after we implemented Face Time for Families, my husband, without warning, fell on our $40-million-dollar porch. When he fell, the C6 and C7 bones in his neck were broken, resulting in an immediate spinal injury and paralysis. He lost all mobility from the neck down. My husband, in a matter of seconds, became a quadriplegic.

He was transported to the hospital and had surgery the very next day to relieve the pressure on his spinal cord from the swelling around the broken bones. Once out of surgery, the neurosurgeon called me to let me know the surgery was a success. She said that it would take several weeks to get him back to normal, but that this was the first step.

Later that day, the case manager called asking if I would like to talk to him — over Zoom. Just one month earlier, I was implementing these virtual experiences in my own hospital, and here I was now, about to use that same technology to see my own husband shortly after surgery.

I connected to the call and his caregiver set the iPad in front of him.

“Hey, beautiful,” he said.

Can you imagine? My paralyzed husband, calling me beautiful. I choked back the tears. I wonder, would it have had the same affect over a traditional phone call? Would it have even happened? Being able to see his face for the first time an agonizing 48 hours after he was transported away from our $40-million-dollar porch was priceless. It could not have happened without the technology in place.


Face-to-face patient interaction is critical to both the patient and to the connections between family members. Prior to COVID, facilities were sometimes utilizing this technology to bring people together when it was not possible to be there in person. In the coming weeks, months, and years, I believe programs like Face Time for Families will become standard across all hospitals, enabling caregivers to provide patients and loved ones with the healing element of human interaction — a win for everyone as hospitals fulfill their healing mission and patient satisfaction increases.


When we set up Face Time for Families, we were confident that it would mean the world to those who could not be with their loved ones — to hear a voice and to see a face. We believed that putting patients first would make a difference.

Now I know for sure: We were right.