MYTEAM1 CORP. Hospital utilizes message system

Families submit names on a secure Web site.
DAYTON (AP) -- An automated phone system originally intended to help neighborhood organizations contact members has been implemented at Dayton Heart Hospital, allowing family and friends to receive updates on sick loved ones.
Patients or their family members record a message and then Troy-based MyTeam1 Corp. uses an automatic dialer to send it out to as many as 50 numbers, which are submitted to the company on a secure Web site.
Luanne Atkins used the service last month when her mother was in the hospital for quadruple bypass surgery. She said it was easier than separately passing on her mother's condition to 15 people each day.
"We could just go home and go to sleep," Atkins said. "And my mom has gotten rave reviews from her friends, telling her how much they appreciated the updates."
MyTeam1's software was designed to allow coaches to inform players of practice times, churches to broadcast meeting times and prayers, neighborhood-watch groups to announce crime alerts and support groups to share information, said chief executive Leib Lurie.
The company's Web site offers coaches the chance to make unlimited calls over six months to 50 numbers for $39.95. The company went into business two years ago and now makes about 50,000 calls nationwide on peak days.
The idea was extended to Dayton Heart Hospital when informing people about a patient's condition became tougher because of privacy issues associated with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which took effect last year.
"When somebody called and said, 'How's Aunt Sally doing?' we used to be able to say, 'She's doing a lot better than she was yesterday,"' said Adam Middleton, Dayton Heart's vice president of business development. "Now, if it's not the family spokesperson, all we can say is they're in fair, critical or whatever condition."
A patient could authorize the hospital to release any information to anyone who asks, but hospital administrators discourage that.
"If you do that, they're going to wind up coming back with, 'I meant everybody but George,'" Middleton said.
Hospital's service
Lurie said he learned about HIPAA about a year ago when his family was on vacation out of state and word came that his father-in-law was at Dayton Heart with a suspected heart attack.
"So everyone's panicking," Lurie said. "It was a royal pain, very disconcerting not knowing what was going on. It all felt surreal. We'd ask, 'How's Granddad?' and we pretty much got, 'We can't confirm or deny his existence.'"
Lurie then worked with Middleton to develop the hospital's service.
"People can say when their father's ready for visitors, how long he'll be in the hospital, when he'll be home and the family sure would appreciate it if a few people brought some casseroles," Lurie said. "I hope we'll eventually be able to let people leave messages for the patient, but we're not there yet."