According to the latest news, Amazon has two new programs that integrate Alexa into hospitals and senior living communities. The Alexa programs are run through Alexa Smart Properties. Alexa Smart Properties allows organizations to control a centralized Alexa system.
In an interview, Liron Torres, global leader for Alexa Smart Properties said, “Early on in the pandemic, hospitals and senior living communities reached out to us and asked us to help them set up Alexa and voice in their communities.” She explained that hospitals wanted ways to interact with patients without using protective equipment while senior living communities wanted to connect residents with family members and staff.
This Alexa program will let senior living facilities use Amazon Echo devices to send messages to residents’ rooms. During the pandemic, most facilities had to rely on printed out paper sheets slipped under resident doors for communicating changes in protocols. The Alexa program lets them send messages instantly into patient rooms so “Staff can be more available for other tasks.”
Here, residents can also call family members and friends through Alexa without having to rely on a staff member. The ‘Approved contacts’ facility could enable calling for a set of contacts approved by the resident and family members to be able to call through Alexa when they arrive.
On the other hand, in hospitals, the Alexa Smart Properties program will let nurses communicate with patients through the calling drop-in features without having to enter patient rooms, where patients could ask questions and nurses could also check how a particular patient is feeling. Torres said, “This enables hospitals to increase productivity and be able to save on medical supplies.” Torres clarified that patients can also order Alexa to “do not disturb” to prevent drop-ins.
