Cablevision’s Optimum Lightpath has introduced a new service specifically for New York metropolitan area hospitals that provides hospital patients with medical information through interactive TV.

Lightpath has signed an exclusive agreement with GetWellNetwork to provide the service, called Interactive Patient Care (IPC).

Hospital patients can use TVs in their rooms to learn more about their condition, connect with family and interact with caregivers.

The system, Lightpath said, ultimately improves patient knowledge and safety, clinical care outcomes, staff responsiveness, bed turnover rates and workflow efficiencies for hospital staff.

"When patients and families actively participate in the care and recovery process, health outcomes improve . Our service is designed to fully engage patients in the hospital care they receive," said Michael O'Neil, CEO of GetWellNetwork.

The PatientLife System gives patients on-demand access to a patient education video library and medications database, hospital stay and visitor information, movies and games, non-clinical service request menus, meal ordering, surveys and real-time feedback features, Internet and e-mail access, music and more.

Patients can be engaged with a variety of coordinated, automated prompts that appear on the television monitor to proactively invite each patient, at the appropriate time, to learn more about his/her care, condition and safety. Beyond simple alerts, these interactive messages are delivered through a proprietary Patient Pathways workflow engine – enabling hospitals to customize a patient's hospital experience based on particular data inputs or automatic triggers, such as diagnostic or procedure codes.