2006 Winner
Hurricane Katrina Kiosks
Subject: RxKiosks Installed in MHMRA facilities Throughtout Harris County Texas
Section: A.) Background
2006 Winner
Hurricane Katrina Kiosks
Subject: RxKiosks Installed in MHMRA facilities Throughtout Harris County Texas
Section: A.) Background
The Mental Health and Mental Retardation
Authority of Harris County (link to the
MHMRA website here )has, because of its forward thinking vision, positioned
itself more as a business entity that faces intense competition rather than as a
non-profit government agency. This point-of-view pushes all employees and
investments to their maximum potential.
MHMRA sought to accomplish three basic goals:
1.) Make their current "clients" aware
of all the services that their agency had to offer
2.) Maximize their highly trained personnel
3.) Automate client/patient appointment scheduling
The agency had been developing a highly integrated and informative website,
however, the majority of their clientele lack internet access and many also
suffer debilitating physical handicaps.
The MHMRA team determined that interactive kiosks
placed within their centers would be the best way to accomplish these goals.
Little did the MHMRA staff realize how far its resources would be pushed when it
was placed into emergency management / crisis management mode because of
Hurricane Katrina.
The Katrina survivors "have experienced a superhuman amount of trauma, and they’re suffering a host of emotional problems," says Carson Easley, RN, MS, director of nursing for the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority (MHMRA) of Texas’ Harris County. Her agency has waded through the mental anguish of some of the 225,000 evacuees forced to take refuge in the Lone Star State. Some came directly from the crippled Superdome and were placed into emergency shelters, hospitals, or alternative housing.
"Many truly believed they
were sent to the Superdome to die," Easley says. "And with dead bodies
piling up around them, their fears were justified. We’re seeing the fallout of
so much emotional pain."
Easley describes two phases of
trauma the Katrina evacuees are encountering. First, immediately after the
hurricane, survivors showed an acute response. Feelings of shock, anger, and
frustration are common as the evacuees try to assess their losses and search for
loved ones. Their focus becomes survival, finding food, shelter, and clothing.
Perhaps a third of the people hardest hit by Katrina could develop posttraumatic
stress disorder, research suggests. In the aftermath of 1992’s Hurricane
Andrew, one study found, 36% of South Florida subjects highly exposed to the
disaster met criteria for new-onset PTSD six months after the storm, while 30%
suffered major depression. In addition, more than half of the sample had
significant psychiatric symptoms that lasted longer than six months.
The installation of the kiosks within the centers proved to be an integral part
of MHMRA’s emergency management efforts. Many of the personel were called
offsite to assist refugees in the emergency shelters and many refugees were
taken to MHMRA clinic facilities to better deal with their needs.
The kiosks have accomplished their original mission goals and an invaluable
resource during a catastrophic crisis.
The National Center for
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder lists these factors as helping promote mental
health in the wake of disaster:
The flexibility of the rugged and lightweight Ezscreen Rx190 kiosks installed,
enabled MHMRA personnel to place the units exactly where they were needed during
the National Emergency.
Our kiosks assisted the overwhelming
numbers of Katrina survivors find answers to many important questions about
MHMRA’s services as well as a multitude of City, County and State services
that were so important to the refugees’ survival.
Section: B.) Design and Implementation
Harris County is a very large and highly populated area
As of the census2
of 2000, there are 3,400,578 people, 1,205,516 households, and 834,217 families
residing in the county. The population density is 759/km² (1,967/mi²). There
are 1,298,130 housing units at an average density of 290/km² (751/mi²). The
racial makeup of the county is 58.73% White, 18.49% Black or African American,
0.45% Native American, 5.14% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 14.18% from other
races, and 2.96% from two or more races. 32.93% of the population are Hispanic
or Latino of any race.
The many locations and diversity of the architecture where MHMRA’s
clinics are located reflects this. The kiosk installation needed to address the
widespread installation and varying requirements from clinic to clinic.
The solution was to utilize our lightweight all-in-one touchscreen PC system
with wireless internet access. The PCs were wall-mounted on easy to install
slide on wall mounts with security fasteners. The two part mounts allow MHMRA
personnel to locate the wall-mount half of the fastening system in many
locations where the kiosks might be used. Using the specialty screwdrivers
supplied, in-house personnel can simply un-do two screws, unplug the power cord
and slide the kiosk off the wall. The other half of the mount remains on the
kiosk, allowing it to be slid-on in a different location, quickly, easily and
without special training.
Just as important as portability and ease of installation were, the kiosks
needed to provide a media-rich experience that would engage the user. The
Ezscreen Rx190 "Aero Edition" all-in-one PCs (click
here for link to more information on the Rx190) web page have super-bright
high resolution 19" LCD displays and Ezscreen 5-wire resistive touch
panels.
To maximize throughput, the units have on-board Intel® 2.8GHz P4 processors,
512Mb RAM, 80Gb Hard Disk Drives, DVD-CDRW Drives and nVidia® 128Mb video
cards.
To complete the effectiveness of MHMRA’s rich
website, we incorporated built-in weather-proof carbon-fiber amplified speakers.
The units also had to be rugged and secure. To accomplish this in a lightweight
form factor, we incorporated our NASA build-out experience. The entire structure
of these modular units is constructed of T6 aircraft aluminum.
"The fit and finish is
beautiful and incredible. I have never seen anything like this…Wow!"
-Bob Brownstein, MHMRA IT Director
The housing is hinged to the backplane and a keyed lock (with matched keys)
allows administrator access to all of the kiosk hardware and drives within while
securing the components away from user access.
We accomplished this by laser cutting all the
custom parts and using our exclusive welding process to create nearly invisible
seams throughout the thin-gauge and hardened aluminum housing assembly. The
result is worthy of the finest spacecraft, ultra-lightweight and very robust.
The locations also had environmental concerns. Many may be lacking
air-conditioning or placed in sunny areas. This type of installation can wreak
havoc for many all-in-one PCs, even violating their warranty terms, but we
addressed this through the utilization of our patent-pending heat dissipation
technology.
During the hardware selection process for MHMRA, units were acquired from many
different manufacturers and tested for throughput and performance. No other unit
came close to the Rx190 in terms of cool operational temperatures. What’s
more, the unit also proved to be the quietest and fastest computer of all those
tested.
The entire aluminum unit structure acts in
concert, creating a large passive heat sink. Venting is accomplished in a
stealthy way through the use of only one super-quiet housing fan which gains its
high-volume, low speed ambient air through the stainless steel filtering grills
of the speaker openings!
Long term on-site testing began in January 2004 and was completed in March 2005.
In the end, only one unit had accomplished all of the program’s hardware
goals, the Ezscreen Rx190 Aero Edition was declared the winner.
Funding for this project was provided by a grant with very strict terms. The
entire system must be delivered and installed within ninety days after the award
was announced. We came through, on schedule with a week to spare.
Section: C.) Marketing
Even though the units had to have a small
footprint, MHMRA wanted them to attract the client’s attention. The clinic
facilities are often crowded and the management was concerned that the kiosks
would suffer from lack of consumer attention.
The consumer base of composed of both children and adults so we designed a
unique graphics campaign specifically for the MHMRA. Titled "Stop. Look and
Learn", the campaign features colorful primary colors that appealed to the
agencies important pediatric clients and a stoplight graphic designed to attract
the attention of adults.
The issues of limited budget, user-safety and ease of deployment were accomplished by the use of a large, low-cost, lightweight (less than 3 pounds) and rugged corrugated polycarbonate fold-out and secure 3-D graphics.
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Rx190
Aero Edition with the graphics surround installed |
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The unique design of these allows MHMRA employees to install the graphics by
simply unlocking the kiosk housing and sliding the assembly over the housing.
The wings of the graphics support, secure to the wall with four small fasteners
and the bezel of the kiosk prevents them from being removed by users.
Elegant and effective, It
is the perfect solution for our needs….
Dr. Steven Schnee, Executive Director MHMRA Harris County
The graphics were so successful that it was
implemented for all forty-one kiosks.
To further promote and finance continuing regular and special crisis duties of
the MHMRA, a "Mardi Gras Evening" (link
to MHMRA document here) honoring former Senator and County Judge Jon
Lindsay.
This special event was designed to celebrate the efforts of the MHMRA during the
Hurrican Katrina crisis and was held in the facility’s convention center where
the attendees were surrounded by the well-implemented Rx190 kiosks as well as
the world’s first 37" all-in-one touch screen PC (link
to more information about our Rx370 here) kiosk that we
created for the crisis management team.
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Rx370:
37" All-In-One Touch Screen PC |
Rx370:
37" All-In-One Touch Screen PC |
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The well attended event garnered statewide TV
news coverage and included such notable speakers as Houston Mayor Bill White and
Harris County Judge Robert Eckels.
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Texas
Senator Jon Lindsay with MHMRA exectutive director Dr. Steven Schnee at |
Houston Mayor Bill White Courts the MHMRA's volunteer Jesters during the event |
Volunteers turn the Rx370 into another fund raising area for the evening |
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Section D.) Return on Investment
The total budget for this project was only $183,000.00 and did not include the
need for graphics design or production. Our company believed in the project so
we donated these goods and services in an effort to improve our local community.
We could hardly be more
pleased with the successful results. The impeccable timing of this deployment to
assist MHMRA in the crisis management effort on behalf of the Katrina rufugees
was simply amazing…
-Steve Kroll, President Ezscreen®
Touch Screen Systems
Many of the "shell-shocked" survivors of Katrina found some solace in
the internet resources that our kiosks have provided. We know that the ongoing
kiosk-improved efficiency of the capable professionals at MHMRA has averted more
"personal" and "family" level disasters.
This is particularly important when you have the fate of thousands of
individuals, who are effectively on "suicide watch", within your
custody and care.
One cannot treat simply the physical body without the considering the mind. All
too often these days, the individual’s perceived quality of life lies in your
ability to serve them effectively. The kiosks are not only an internet access
resource, they are the "bedside manner" of the agency’s staff
reaching out to help the millions that they serve every day of the week.
It is not ethical to place a dollar-cost on the
value of human dignity and life. It is priceless.
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