GE Healthcare's The Patient Channel Reaches Key Milestones in Coverage and Accessibility

WAUKESHA, WI. – GE Healthcare's The Patient Channel today announced major milestones in reaching hospital patients and families with important information on health, wellness and parenting. Closed captioning will be added to increase accessibility for hearing-impaired patients and Spanish language closed captioning will be offered for non-English speaking patients. The closed captioning will be in place within the next six months, and will be available for all educational programs offered on The Patient Channel.

The Patient Channel, a joint venture introduced by GE Healthcare and NBC, has grown significantly in size and scope since its launch in September 2002. The Patient Channel is now the largest in-room hospital education network in the U.S., providing 39 programs to 1,060 sites. All programming is developed and reviewed for accuracy by an outside advisory board of medical and educational experts. More than six million patients and their visiting families or caregivers currently have access to the programs.

The addition of bilingual closed captioning fills an unmet need within U.S. hospitals. As demographics have shifted, the United States is now officially recognized as the fifth largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. Data from the 2000 U.S. census shows that Spanish is spoken by approximately 32,000,000 people living in the United States, or 12 percent of the total population. Also, according to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), more than 34 million Americans are hearing impaired. Several states--including Connecticut and California--have interpreted the federal Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) to imply that all televised content viewable by their patients should be available with captioning, and it is anticipated that other states will likely follow suit.

To make the closed captioning available to all the patients on The Patient Channel, GE’s production broadcast and transmission systems are being upgraded, and hospital TVs must be capable of decoding captioned data--a standard requirement for all television sets sold in the U.S. since Congress passed the Telecommunications Decoder Circuitry Act in 1990.

With a wide variety of timely and relevant programming on the most common medical conditions, The Patient Channel is a vital resource for hospitals, their patients, and the healthcare industry. The value of The Patient Channel was confirmed by a recent survey revealing 93 percent of respondents indicated the content was just right (literacy level) and 71 percent found the content useful or very useful in managing their condition. Hospital patients, including the elderly or seriously ill, watch an average of seven programs or 2.5 hours of content during their stay, often viewing with caregivers or loved ones. The closed captioning will allow more patients to access the information, even if it might be difficult to hear or understand what is being said.

“To ensure we’re delivering the best and most accessible programming for patients and families, we’re continuously seeking to improve both our content and mode of delivery,” said David Ross, manager, whole hospital education for GE Healthcare Services. “With the introduction of closed captioning in English and Spanish, The Patient Channel is addressing the two most frequently requested technical enhancements from hospitals in GE’s network.”

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