“HPNA has reviewed and approved this product. While this Mark of Endorsement validates the quality of the content of this product, the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association does not wish to confer medical advice.”
Welcome to Vidatak! Please take time to review our educational resources to the left. We would also appreciate your feedback by taking our online survey. <click here>
The Vidatak EZ Boards are an excellent application to
improving clinical outcomes for patients. They are research based, have received
acknowledgment, endorsement and support from the Hospice and Palliative Nursing
Association (HPNA), the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN), and
recently WINNER of the 2009 New Products and Technology Awards recognizing
innovation in serving older adults and families. <click here>
Most recent publication:
Patak L, Wilson-Stronks, A, Costello J,
Kleinpell RM, Person C, Henneman EA, Happ MB. Improving Patient-Provider
Communication: A Call to Action.
JONA; September 2009,39(9):372-376.
<click here>
For more publications on the EZ Board,
The EZ Board Empowers Patient-Centered Care: May 19, 2009 in "What 'Patient-Centered' Should Mean" [a Health Affairs web exclusive], Dr. Berwick states, "I fear to become a patient. Partly, that fear comes from what I know about technical hazards and lack of reliability in care. What chills my bones is indignity. It is the loss of influence on what happens to me. It is the image of myself in a hospital gown, homogenized, anonymous, powerless, no longer myself." The EZ board helps nursing staff and families to provide individualized care, to treat the patient based on their needs and puts control back into the hands of the patient. Patient-centered care has been shown to increase patient satisfaction, decreased length of stay, decrease medical error, increase survival, increase staff/faculty retention and increase market share. In addition to the EZ Board, we have provided another strategy to help incorporate patient-centered care into routine practice. We have provided for ICU Patient Centered Rounds Sheet which you may download and begin using today. <click here>
Introducing our new Picture Communication Board, a joint research and development achievement with Children's Hospital Boston <click here>. The Picture Communication Board was designed for patients of all ages, while the Word version of the EZ Board, would be best used with literate patients ages 8 and older.
For Medicare or insurance
claims use
HCPCS Code E1902.
The Vidatak EZ Board
is an evidence-based, patient communication board designed by patients and
supported by clinical research to improve patient satisfaction, reduce
frustration, and improve patient outcomes. They are the perfect
communication aid for providing point-of-care, readily available communication
resources for patients who are rendered unable to speak. The EZ Boards are 17 x
11, two-sided, dry-erase boards which come individually shrink-wrapped with
pre-assembled with dry-erase marker. Today, the EZ Boards are
available in 17 languages and as a Picture Board and used in over 1,500
hospitals throughout the US as well as Canada, United
Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Australia and India.
More Than Just A Communication
Board
Our goal is to prevent withdrawal, to empower patients to participate with
their care, to empower and encourage nursing staff to be able to achieve and
maintain the same therapeutic relationships with patients who cannot speak
as they can with patients who can speak. Following our research and
implementation of the Vidatak EZ Board, we have learned how providing the
right communication tools to patients with communication impairment can
improve patient outcomes. Using communication boards that are not
research-based may discourage the practice of using communication boards
altogether. We encourage you to implement our EZ Boards into your
everyday patient care. By improving patient satisfaction, improving
patient outcomes we are certain your institution will achieve cost-savings
benefits that justify this change in practice. Instructions for use. <click
here>
Recommendations
We recommend the boards be stocked in preoperative rooms for preoperative teaching, recovery rooms, ER's, ICU's, rehabilitation units, head and neck suites, nursing homes, hospices and general medicine units where there may be patients who are unable to verbally communicate or cannot speak English. We also recommend the boards be made available through your interpreter/translation department for non-English speaking patients.
Simple implementation strategies:
1) Include communication boards as part of preoperative teaching package.
2) Add "Communication needs addressed" as a checklist items for preoperative
teaching assessments.
3) Add "Patient able to communicate effectively? Preferred communication
method?" on ICU Daily Round Sheets.
4) Add "Patient communication board" on Physician admission order sets where
impaired communication is anticipated (e.g. cardiac surgeries, head and neck
surgeries, trauma, ICU's, etc.).
For the safety of your patient and increased utilization of your EZ Boards, you may also want to invest in our beside rail holder to allow for easy access and storage of your patient’s communication board. Much like the call light, keeping this board within reach empowers the patient and promotes autonomy. These holders are durable and reusable.
Please click on the savings analysis link (top left) for a detailed summary and a sample calculation of how implementing the Vidatak EZ Board into standard practice hospital wide can save your hospital hundreds of thousands of dollars with reduced sedation, length of ICU and hospital stay.
If you would like more information regarding the Vidatak EZ Board, please review our various links on our website or please email us at customerservice@vidatak.com or call 877-EZ BOARD.