New Survey Shows Nearly Half of Hospitalized Patients and Their Loved Ones Say They Don't Get Enough Information About Patient's Condition

WAUKESHA, WI., – GE Medical Systems, a unit of the General Electric Corporation (NYSE: GE) today announced the startling results of a survey on patient education, which shows that 43% of Americans felt that they didn’t receive enough information regarding their own or a loved one’s condition during their last hospital stay*. The survey was commissioned by GE Medical Systems’ The Patient Channel, which provides educational healthcare programming to hospitals across the country.

The survey also demonstrated 36% of Americans thought that hospital staff sometimes, rarely or almost never spent enough time to fully educate them or a loved one on their condition or possible treatments.

Yet the problem goes beyond patients feeling uninformed. Patients who know little about their condition may have difficulty taking care of themselves and may face unnecessary return trips to the hospital. According to Hospitalmanagement.net, a publication of the International Hospital Federation, “health illiteracy” negatively impacts up to 90 million patients in the United States. Additionally, the publication estimates that the financial impact of low health literacy on the US health system is estimated to be in the range of $60 to $70 billion dollars annually.

“Clearly, as hospital staffs suffer personnel shortages, they have less and less time to educate patients on conditions, treatment options and other healthcare issues during their hospital stay as the survey demonstrates,” said Dr. Bruce B. Dan, managing editor of The Patient Channel. “There is a distinct need for services like The Patient Channel to supplement patient education in the hospital.”

“For patients who may not understand how to treat their diabetes, or understand the importance of smoking cessation, an educational service like the Patient Channel offers another way to send those critical messages,” said Sharon Alexander, education coordinator, RN, CDE, Hopkins County Memorial Hospital. “As a recent survey shows, patients feel that The Patient Channel is a valuable resource. We believe it encourages our patients to ask more questions about their health and take additional responsibility.”

Other survey findings include:

• Eighty-seven percent of those surveyed believed it is important to educate patients in a hospital about healthcare primarily because it helps patients to take better care of themselves when they leave the hospital.

• Ninety percent would watch a TV channel in a hospital if it had programs focused on their specific disease, its treatment, and how to change their lifestyle in response to illness.

• In addition to speaking with a doctor, 49% prefer to receive information on an illness/condition and its treatment via television or video.

About The Patient Channel
GE Healthcare launched The Patient Channel on April 30, 2002 with patient educational programming to help U.S. hospitals provide credible, accurate and up-to-date information to patients and their families, caregivers, and friends. The television programming is seen in patient rooms and waiting areas.

Programming on the channel covers a wide spectrum of topics including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, cancer, asthma, smoking cessation, parenting, health/wellness, and other healthcare topics. The goal of the channel is to educate patients and their families and to increase their awareness of medical issues and treatment options. The educational content is meant to stimulate communication with healthcare providers, improve the ability to make informed decisions, and promote a sense of empowerment at the time when accurate information is most needed.

• Over 40 educational programs
• Broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Spanish and English closed captioning available on all programs
• Provides reliable and focused patient education content
• Topics cover health and wellness topics selected with input from patient educators in our hospital network
• All content is developed according to the standards set and maintained by an external advisory board
• A web site for staff and patients, family and friends with applicable information before, during and after hospital stays

• More About The Patient Channel

About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform and treat disease, so their patients can live their lives to the fullest.

GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases, and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $15 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 43,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries.

• More Information About GE Healthcare

* The Patient Channel Hospital Patient Education Survey was commissioned in August 2003 through ORC International. The survey was conducted August 8-11 among 1,025 American adults [509 men and 516 women] living in private households, age 18 years and older. The overall margin of error for the survey was +/- 3%.