Hospedia

Last updated
Hospedia LTD.
FormerlyPatientLine
IndustryHospital equipment
Area served
United Kingdom
Key people
James Steventon, CEO
ProductsHospital bedside televisions, Clinical Workflow Solutions[ buzzword ]
BrandsPatient Flow
ServicesHospital patient media delivery. Clinical Flow Solutions.
OwnerWiFi SPARK
Website www.hospedia.co.uk

Hospedia Ltd (formerly PatientLine) is a provider of bedside communication and entertainment units in UK hospitals which also sells clinical workflow solutions for NHS Trusts.

Contents

History

Hospedia Ltd is a private limited company, established in 1993. [1] Hospedia acquired Patientline during July 2008 after the company entered administration. [2] Hospedia then looked to acquire Patientline's main competitor, Premier Telesolutions, which would have given Hospedia responsibility for over 80,000 bedside television units. [3]

The proposed acquisition was referred to the Office of Fair Trading in 2008. [4] [5] On 30 October 2009, the Competition Commission announced that it had cancelled its inquiry into the acquisition. [6]

In August 2010 Hospedia Ltd was acquired from Hospedia Holdings LTD by Marlin Equity Partners, [7] [8] Tim Weil, Hospedia's CEO, claimed:

Marlin’s significant capital base and shared vision for upgrading our installed base of over 65,000 terminals with our latest generation technology will enable Hospedia to provide a better service to patients and simultaneously provide hospitals with a means to significantly improve efficiency and reduce costs.

Hospedia acquired 65,000 bed locations from the former Patientline in 2012, which secured the company a position to project itself as the only choice provider for all future Healthcare IT services. [9] [ self-published source ] This position is unlikely to be rivalled as the installation costs of the original programme were never recovered, making a nationwide installation programme by any other company unrealistic.[ citation needed ] The Monopolies and Mergers Commission recognised the danger of the company having a majority stake of these locations and blocked the merger with Premier Telesolutions in 2008, however Hospedia came to manage some of these sites including Northampton General Hospital. [10]

JAOtech

In 2010 JAOtech based in Redhill, Surrey gained a contract with Hospedia, to renew bedside terminals across their entire estate in the UK. The contract was worth $3.25 million over twelve months. [11]

In September 2011 JAOtech & Hospedia had installed 6,500 new bedside terminals across the UK, this number was far lower than the expected number that were to have renewed contracts replacing the old T1 and T2 systems. [12] By July 2012 the number of new units installed had increased by a further 8500, with the total in excess of 15,000. [13]

JAOtech was acquired by Barco NV in 2011. [14]

In November 2011, Hospedia announced that it had entered another partnership to secure funding for the continuing installation of the new systems with GE Capital. [15]

In 2012 Hospedia bought patient flow and bed management supplier Extramed. [16]

Services

This service currently includes standard Freeview channels, on-demand films and TV, games, internet access and radio. [17] Media is delivered to patients via Hospedia's bedside terminals. [18] A variety of entertainment packages are available depending on a patient's length of stay and whether they wish to have access to films on demand, games, and/or internet. Registering on the bedside system allows patients to make free unlimited outgoing calls to 01, 02, 03 and certain 07 numbers, [19] this was partly balanced by the revenue generated from incoming calls made to the patient's unique Hospedia 070 telephone number.

Concerned at the lack of transparency and the high retail charges for calls to 070 numbers, Ofcom launched a call cost review in 2017. [20] This led to a consultation in 2018 which recommended capping the termination rate or wholesale rate at no more than the rate for calling a mobile number. [21] Those changes took effect on 1 October 2019, [22] the wholesale rate was reduced from around 49p per minute to just 0.489p per minute, and several landline and mobile phone providers immediately passed the saving on by including calls to 070 numbers within inclusive allowances.

Just as this change was happening, Hospedia abandoned usage of Personal Numbers starting 070 for bedside telephones, and has instead swapped to Premium Rate Numbers in various number ranges from 0872 800 xxxx to 0872 849 xxxx, supplied by Nexus Communications. Calls to these numbers incur an Access Charge of up to 65p per minute levied by the caller's telephone provider, and a Service Charge of 13p per minute levied by Hospedia. These are Controlled Premium Rate Services (CPRS) regulated by the Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA).

Hospedia has explored provision of patient surveys through their bedside terminals. This however has still to be proved as a successful way of conducting surveys as pilot schemes until now how proved slightly unbalanced as only a certain category of patients are able to use the bedside terminal. In the past, the Picker Institute has expressed reservations with regard to the use of bedside terminals. [23] However, in 2012 the institute partnered with Hospedia to offer extensive real time patient surveys through their Frequent Feedback service. [24] [ failed verification ]

Public opinion

Public opinion has been critical of both Patientline and Hospedia, as many [25] [26] feel that charging the sick and vulnerable to access television in hospital is unacceptable. In 2012 The Sunday Mirror covered increase of charges, with reporter Nick Owens stating that the cost of hospital television was £9 per day, a higher figure than that paid by prison inmates. [27]

Wholesale charges for calls made to the units remained at the personal numbers rate of 49p per minute for the duration of the period when 070 telephone numbers were employed, with callers paying considerably more. Moving to Premium Rate 0872 numbers with a 13p per minute Service Charge in late 2019 has resulted in friends and relatives of patients having to pay up to 78p per minute to call the bedside phone.[ citation needed ]

In 2010 the company featured on the BBC's consumer affairs programme Watchdog [28] which portrayed the company in "favourable" light, neither negative or positive.

A major criticism is that cards purchased from Hospedia card machines are non-refundable; the company state that if the patient pays by credit or debit card, any unused credit is refunded. However, getting such a refund has proven to be time-consuming in practice, requiring the ward, bay and bed numbers to be known. [29] In February 2010, the then head of the Patients Association Michael Summers described the process as "a tax on the ill", saying that "They are a captive audience and many patients simply can’t afford these prices". [30]

In 2009 there were also complaints about a lack of "on site" support for operational problems with bedside units, and this was especially the case out of regular working hours when Hospedia relied on its 24-hour premium-rate helpline to resolve issues. It was recognised that this approach did not always meet patients' needs. [31]

The decrease in face-to-face and telephone customer service has led to even more frustration, as when patients or visitors call the helpline from the unit, the operators are not now able to offer full customer service or replace any lost time due to faults, and these enquiries are now passed to a new department in the company's head office in Slough.

When the Government introduced PPI in 2000, they were committed to providing every patient in the NHS with bedside television and telephone services. The providers of these services, Patientline, Hospicom (now HTS) and The Wandsworth Group were to recover their costs by charging patients and also hospitals using them for medical services. The demand, however, was lower than anticipated.[ citation needed ]

The Patient Power review group has expressed its concerns about the increasing costs of the bedside services and has become the most vocal of groups [32] challenging the use of these terminals at a cost to patients. The group has launched a number of protests against the charges and Hospedia issued a statement [33] in February 2011 to explain that they supported a reduction in both the cost of telephone calls and the use of non-geographic numbers, which had been assigned back in 2000, and were hopeful that these measures would assist in lowering the cost of such calls.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley MP featured on a video on the system which came under criticism. [34] [35]

In 2021 Hospedia was acquired by Volaris Group. [36]

Hospital radio

While the television services are charged for, Hospedia has continued to provide hospital radio for free, enabling the hospital to reach patients via their stations on the bedside units. The hospital stations are to be found on channel 1 on the system which also includes the facility to contact the station via the telephone on the unit. Listening through traditional means required hospitals to maintain a radio system beside each bed, but in many locations Hospedia is now the only way to access hospital radio.

Payment technology

Hospedia had predicted that the majority of people staying in hospital would pay for services using mobile phones, credit cards and other "smart" technology. This has led to a rethink of the removal of all card dispensers in hospitals.[ citation needed ] In 2012 Hospedia acquired the hospital workflow management specialists Extramed. [37] [38]

Future plans including online prescription information and a move into online healthcare information are being looked at,[ when? ] as the company tries to detach itself from just being a television service provider.[ citation needed ]

IT systems

Marlin Equity Partners who are also behind enterprise resource planning business Solarsoft acquired Hospedia LTD in 2010.

The following hospitals have upgraded to the new T3 System: Addenbrookes Hospital, Epsom General Hospital, Royal Oldham Hospital, Whiston Hospital, Eastbourne Hospital, Chesterfield Royal Hospital, Broomfield Hospital, Carlisle Infirmary, Salford Royal Hospital, Castle Hill Hospital, Salisbury Hospital, Bournemouth General, Wythenshawe Hospital, Good Hope Hospital, St Helier Hospital, North Manchester Hospital Manchester Royal Infirmary.

Mid Essex Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals, Southampton University Hospitals and Heart of England NHS foundation trusts have started using the Clinical Access Services provided by Hospedia. [39]

Related Research Articles

Premium-rate telephone numbers are telephone numbers that charge callers higher price rates for select services, including information and entertainment. A portion of the call fees is paid to the service provider, allowing premium calls to be an additional source of revenue for businesses. Tech support, psychic hotlines, and adult chat lines are among the most popular kinds of premium-rate phone services. Other services include directory enquiries, weather forecasts, competitions and ratings televoting. Some businesses, e.g. low-cost airlines, and diplomatic missions, such as the US Embassy in London or the UK Embassy in Washington, have also used premium-rate phone numbers for calls from the general public.

Telephone slamming is an illegal telecommunications practice, in which a subscriber's telephone service is changed without their consent. Slamming became a more visible issue after the deregulation of the telecommunications industry in the mid-1980s, especially after several price wars between the major telecommunications companies. The term slamming was coined by Mick Ahearn, who was a consumer marketing manager at AT&T in September 1987. The inspiration for the term came from the ease at which a competitor could switch a customer's service away from AT&T by falsely notifying a telephone company that an AT&T customer had elected to switch to their service. This process gave AT&T's competitors a "slam dunk" method for the unauthorized switching of a customer's long-distance service. The term slamming became an industry standard term for this practice.

A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge. A toll-free number is identified by a dialing prefix similar to an area code. The specific service access varies by country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conference call</span> Telephone call with several participants

A conference call is a telephone call in which someone talks to several people at the same time. The conference call may be designed to allow the called party to participate during the call or set up so that the called party merely listens into the call and cannot speak.

In telecommunications, directory assistance or directory inquiries is a phone service used to find out a specific telephone number and/or address of a residence, business, or government entity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom</span>

In the United Kingdom, telephone numbers are administered by the Office of Communications (Ofcom). For this purpose, Ofcom established a telephone numbering plan, known as the National Telephone Numbering Plan, which is the system for assigning telephone numbers to subscriber stations.

The Big Number Change addressed various issues with the telephone dialling plan in the United Kingdom, during the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the country was running short of new telephone numbers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">118 118 (UK)</span> Directory enquiries provider

118 118 is the UK telephone number for a US owned directory enquiries provider. Once wildly popular for its advertising featuring two runners, the service has experienced a dramatic decline in calls due to easily accessible information via mobile devices. Calls are answered from call centres in the Philippines, with some administration in Cardiff, Wales and other management offices in London that provides telephone numbers, given subscriber name and address, and answers general questions on any subject. 118 118 started operation in December 2002. In September 2013 the company started 118118Money, a provider of unsecured personal loans.

Widespread UK telephone code misconceptions, in particular brought on by the Big Number Change in 2000, have been reported by regulator Ofcom since publication of a report it commissioned in 2004.

saynoto0870.com

saynoto0870.com is a UK website with a directory of non-geographic telephone numbers and their geographic alternatives.

The termination rate is one of the three components in the cost of providing telephone service, and the one subject to the most variation.

A non-geographic number is a type of telephone number that is not linked to any specific locality. Such numbers are an alternative to the traditional 'landline' numbers that are assigned geographically using a system of location-specific area codes. Non-geographic numbers are used for various reasons, from providing flexible routing of incoming phone calls to generating revenue for paid-for services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Health Service (England)</span> Publicly-funded healthcare system in England

The National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded healthcare system in England, and one of the four National Health Service systems in the United Kingdom. It is the second largest single-payer healthcare system in the world after the Brazilian Sistema Único de Saúde. Primarily funded by the government from general taxation, and overseen by the Department of Health and Social Care, the NHS provides healthcare to all legal English residents and residents from other regions of the UK, with most services free at the point of use for most people. The NHS also conducts research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

Personal numbering is the name for the virtual telephone number service in the UK. Typically the national destination code used for this service is (0)70. The service provides a flexible virtual telephone number able to be routed to any other number, including international mobiles. For example, the UK number +44 70 0585 0070 might route to an Inmarsat satellite phone number, allowing the user to have a UK number while roaming globally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daisy Health</span>

Daisy Health is a telecommunications company founded in 1992. It was acquired by Daisy Group in December 2010 for £23.5 million.

A virtual number, also known as direct inward dialing (DID) or access numbers, is a telephone number without a directly associated telephone line. Usually, these numbers are programmed to forward incoming calls to one of the pre-set telephone numbers, chosen by the client: fixed, mobile or VoIP. A virtual number can work like a gateway between traditional calls (PSTN) and VoIP.

111 is a free-to-call single non-emergency number medical helpline operating in England, Scotland and Wales. The 111 phone service has replaced the various non-geographic 0845 rate numbers and is part of each country's National Health Service: in England the service is known as NHS 111; in Scotland, NHS 24; and in Wales, NHS111 Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Health and Social Care Act 2012</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It provided for the most extensive reorganisation of the structure of the National Health Service in England to date. It removed responsibility for the health of citizens from the Secretary of State for Health, which the post had carried since the inception of the NHS in 1948. It abolished primary care trusts (PCTs) and strategic health authorities (SHAs) and transferred between £60 billion and £80 billion of "commissioning", or healthcare funds, from the abolished PCTs to several hundred clinical commissioning groups, partly run by the general practitioners (GPs) in England. A new executive agency of the Department of Health, Public Health England, was established under the act on 1 April 2013.

Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom have a flexible structure that reflects their historical demands, starting from many independent companies through a nationalised near-monopoly, to a system that supports many different services, including cellular phones, which were not envisaged when the system was first built. Numbers evolved in a piecemeal fashion, with numbers initially allocated on an exchange-by-exchange basis for calls connected by manual operators. Subscriber numbers reflected demand in each area, with single digit telephone numbers in very rural areas and longer numbers in cities.

References

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