A stay in the hospital or personal care home just got a little easier for northern Manitobans.
The Northern Health Region (NHR) announced yesterday the launch of Patient Well Wishes, a program that lets patients and care home residents receive virtual messages from loved ones.
“Many of our hospital patients and residents in personal care homes have family and friends living outside of the community or even outside of the region, which makes regular contact difficult,” said Helga Bryant, CEO of the NHR. “The Patient Well Wishes are a nice way for friends and loved ones to brighten up the day of someone staying in one of our centres by allowing them to send a brief personal message right to the bedside.”
Anyone with Internet access can go to the NHR’s website at Northern
healthregion.ca and click on the Patient Well Wishes link to use the free service.
Routed
Messages are routed to the facility where the patient is staying, printed and delivered right to the patient during regular office hours.
Confidentiality is respected by sealing the message and handling it like any other piece of correspondence.
If the person the message was intended for has already been discharged, the message is destroyed.
The Patient Well Wishes service is available at Flin Flon General Hospital, Flin Flon Personal Care Home, Northern Lights Manor and the Snow Lake Health Centre, among other facilities across the region.
Additional facilities may be added if demand exists.
“So far the reaction to the service has been extremely positive,” Bryant said, “and we want to get the word out to everyone in the region that they can make a patient’s day special by receiving a message from home or from anywhere in the province, the country or throughout the world for that matter.
“This is a great way to add to the healing process by enhancing a patient’s stay in hospital or in a personal care home with a caring message from a friend or loved one.”
