By Carey Landry, BCC
At St. Vincent-Carmel Hospital in Carmel, IN, where I have been chaplain for 17 years, we have used various forms of media in our ministry — relaxation CDs for those about to have surgery or who are experiencing restlessness, comforting music in the mother-baby unit, the sounds of a few measures of Brahms Lullaby announcing the birth of a newborn, prayer over the intercom system every morning (to name a few), but nothing can compare to the success we have had with the Skylight Care Navigator (originally called Skylight Access).
The Skylight Care Navigator’s primary focus is to deliver a patient engagement platform that addresses the entire continuum of a patient’s journey of care. This includes planned events, unplanned events requiring hospitalization, disease and condition management along with wellness opportunities. It is designed to partner with patients and their families at the hospital bedside, physician’s office, clinic, outpatient center, or directly at home.
In this report I will concentrate only on using the Skylight Care Navigator (SCN) in the hospital, with specific emphasis on its pastoral care dimension. SCN reaches out to patients at the bedside. Through engaging messages and content, direct connection with service departments, real-time feedback, and alert notifications, it engages patients to be active participants in their own care. With interactive, evidence-based health education, SCN is a medium of learning and interaction between the patient and the hospital.
I have provided slides of the SCN system (Slide 1) as it applies to pastoral care. If you are able to reprint those slides (three pages), you will find it easier to follow my further description of each slide, which I will now provide.
Note: if you are unable to view the embedded slideshow above you can try to view the original PowerPoint version by clicking here. You will need to have either PowerPoint or the free PowerPoint viewer installed.
To view the slides in “handout” (PDF) format click here.
- Slide 2…Main Menu: As you can see the Main Menu provides all the possibilities for access. The pastoral care menu items that are most relevant are Relaxation Videos, Inspirational Videos and Prayers, and the “Request Services.”
- Slide 3…Inspirational / Prayers: When a patient clicks on this link, he/she is given four possibilities for access.
- Slide 4…Video Prayers: These video prayers are short, one-minute, spoken prayers with scenic views in the background.
- Slide 5…Inspirational / Prayers: The second choice a patient is given is for Inspirational Music.
- Slide 6…Inspirational Music: I am pleased to say that three of my own songs are part of this format — the “Be Still and Know” Music / Meditation from the O HEALING LIGHT OF CHRIST cd (OCP), “Come and See” from the COME HOME cd (OCP), and “Isaiah 49: I Will Never Forget You” from our newest collection, ALL IS WELL WITH MY SOUL (OCP).
- Slide 7…Inspirational / Prayers: The third choice is for Pastoral Care Information.
- Slide 8…Pastoral Care: This particular slide is for our smaller hospital, St. Vincent-Carmel Hospital, which does not have a chaplain in-house 24/7. That is why we use the phrase, “If you would like a Bible or to speak with a Chaplain, please ask your nurse.” The nurse will either page me during the day shift or call the Chaplain-on-Duty after hours. We rely on Chaplains-on-Duty for Pastoral Care support during evening hours and on weekends. I take my turn, along with other chaplains in our system, in providing that on-call duty. You also notice the “Mass on Wednesday” invitation to family members on this slide. We do not have Mass on the weekend. Our priest-chaplains are based at the Main Hospital in Indianapolis and one of them comes for Mass every Wednesday at our Carmel Hospital. They celebrate Masses on the weekend at the Main Hospital. Patients have access to the Mass on their television by way of a channel that televises the Sunday Mass celebrated at the Main Hospital. Patients’ families can attend a Sunday liturgy at a nearby local parish.
- Slide 9…Internet – Bible on Line: This allows a patient or family member to access any passage from Scripture, and to search for a passage related to any need they have. If a patient requests a paperback Bible, we provide them with one. Due to Infection Control issues, we are no longer allowed to keep a Bible in the patient’s room. Upon discharge, the patient keeps the Bible that was given to him/her.
- Slide 10…Service Requests: This slide and Slides 11. 12. and 13 pertain to the Main St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, which has 24/7 Chaplains-on-Duty. As you can see on the slide, patients may request a Bible or chaplain directly, without having to go through a nurse. As explained on the slide, patients select a service option, and an ALERT is immediately sent to the COD (Chaplain-on-Duty) pager, which includes the request and the room/bed number.
- Slide 11…Alerts used…: Patient may click on either of these.
- Slide 12…Bible Request: Sufficient time is given for the COD to respond to this request for a Bible.
- Slide 13…Requesting a Member of the PC Dept.: Again the patient is given options and this request is sent directly to the COD’s pager.
- Slide 14…Notification Screen: This screen shows the information the COD receives on his/her pager when the patient’s request is sent in.
- Slide 15…Relaxation Videos: The slide is self-explanatory and these are very helpful, especially for pain management.
- Slide 16…Health Education: This final slide takes a patient beyond the pastoral care framework and shows the wide access patients have to various forms of health education.
None of the other media forms that we have available to patients and their families compares with the SCN. We are able to track the number of times a patient accesses the Inspirational Videos and Prayers, etc., that are part of the pastoral care dimension, and the numbers are consistently in the 400 to 500 range per month. We feel this is remarkable in our small 125-bed hospital.
We see this as a part of our total pastoral care service to our patients and their families, and I consistently encourage patients to make use of the system. If you would like more information concerning the Skylight Care Navigator system, please feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] If I am unable to answer your question, I will refer you to the SCN representative who will likely be able to do so. May God’s peace lead and guide your ministry always.
Carey Landry is a chaplain at St. Vincent-Carmel Hospital in Carmel, IN. He and his wife, Carol Klinghorn-Landry, are composers of Catholic liturgical music.
