Amazon Donates 200 Echo Devices to Calcutta Health Care Companies

CALCUTTA, Ohio  – Calcutta Health Care Companies has received a donation of more than 200 Amazon Echo Show devices to enhance patient care. 

Amazon donated the devices as part of its COVID-19 response initiative. The devices enable CHCC companies frontline health care workers to safely communicate with patients and residents through remote video and voice calls.

CHCC companies operates community-based skilled nursing and assisted living facilities throughout northeastern Ohio, including Poland, Hubbard and Calcutta.

“It’s exciting to see how effectively these devices are being used throughout our centers to elevate patient care,” said President Joseph Cilone Jr. in a statement. “With this technology in place, our teams can now check in and have meaningful interactions more often – and with the necessary safety precautions,” Cilone said.

CHCC companies staff, nursing and extended care teams use the devices to communicate with patients and residents using the Alexa service, so they can enter patient rooms less frequently. This allows them to conserve medical supplies and  protective equipment. 

Patients and residents can also use the devices for limited personal use while at their site, such as to play music, listen to podcasts or check the weather. 

According to J. Greg Roof, regional administrator of CHCC companies, the organization is also exploring new ways to leverage the technology to improve the experience even further. 

“This technology is changing healthcare as we know it,” Roof said. “Being portable, our nurses carry Echo Show devices with them on their rounds and we’ve created brackets for their nursing carts so they can be hands-free when they need to be. We’re also mounting the devices on resident walls to be readily accessible but also out of the reach of wheelchairs and nursing carts where they could potentially get damaged.”

The Echo Show devices were first installed in May throughout the Calcutta facility, and which provides high-level nursing and medical care for people whose illness or impairments require close monitoring. It has since been rolled out in the other four facilities owned by CHCC companies.

Image via Amazon

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.