As of April 1, United Memorial Medical Center offers free television and telephone service to inpatients.
As a result of a new telecommunications contract with Time Warner, patients will have free access to basic cable channels and local telephone service; including free long distance. New flat panel televisions were installed in patient rooms last month.
This change means that patients will no longer have to go through the lengthy process of establishing service through a separate vendor or receive bills for these services following discharge. Both services are readily available to them upon admission to the hospital.
The change was precipitated by comments made on patient satisfaction surveys, which indicated that the former television and telephone services caused a great deal of frustration to patients. The previous service required patients to dial 1-800 numbers and enter financial information to a remote vendor call-site. Customer service issues were difficult for not only patients, but for the nursing staff as well when they were unable to intercede on a patient’s behalf.
Currently, the televisions and telephones are functional; however the full transition to Time Warner will not be complete until mid-May.
For the next six weeks, patients may dial telephone numbers with the 585, 716 and 315 area codes directly. Long distance calls to other area codes will need to be placed through the hospital switchboard although they will not be charged.
In May, following the completion of the transition, patients will be able to make all long distance calls directly from their room without operator assistance.
This initiative was made possible by the UMMC Foundation.
