CoxHealth launches virtual reality training for Environmental Services

For immediate release
March 1, 2019

Staff members in CoxHealth’s Environmental Services department will soon be training to clean patient rooms using virtual reality technology developed in Springfield.

From 3-5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 19, media are invited to see the new technology in person during a live demonstration at Cox South’s Foster Auditorium. Environmental Services professionals and our partners at Self Interactive, who created the training software, will be on hand.

The technology takes participants inside a high-fidelity simulation of a patient room, using a VR headset. The trainee will go through the process of disinfecting a patient room after discharge. The simulation will guide users through their duties before they enter a live training scenario.

“It is like a video game, but when you put the headset on, you are in that room,” says Teresa Shawley, Environmental Services manager at CoxHealth.

The project was created in partnership with Self Interactive, a local development studio based at the eFactory.

Self’s developers worked with Shawley and CoxHealth’s EVS team to build an interactive simulation of the training process.

Shawley pitched the project at the 2018 CoxHealth Innovation Accelerator, held at the eFactory. The pitch helped secure funding from CoxHealth’s innovation budget, which allowed Shawley to assist in creating a customized product.

“Our goal was to standardize and streamline the onboarding process in a consequence-free environment. The results have been great so far,” says Self Interactive founder Charlie Rosenbury.

Self Interactive has created a framework of virtual and augmented reality software, called Tacit, designed to help local businesses train employees and clients. By recreating a real world environment virtually, Tacit eliminates some of the costs and complications of traditional training methods.

“I am really proud of what we have accomplished with Self Interactive,” Lightfoot says. “Our community has some amazingly gifted, forward-thinking people. Self is a great partner that listened very well to our needs and put it into a VR solution that is world class.”

ABOUT SELF INTERACTIVE

Self Interactive is an interactive development studio based in the eFactory. Self builds websites, web applications, mobile apps, and immersive technology applications.

ABOUT COXHEALTH

Established in 1906, CoxHealth serves more than 20 counties in southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas, offering a comprehensive array of primary and specialty care through six hospitals and more than 80 clinics. The health system includes Cox Medical Center South, Cox Medical Center Branson, Cox Barton County Hospital, Cox Monett Hospital, Cox North Hospital, Meyer Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Hospital, Oxford HealthCare, Home Parenteral Services (home infusion therapy), CoxHealth Foundation, Cox College, Cox HealthPlans and more.