November 4, 2005

CarePages help family and friends stay in touch

Labor Day proved far from festive for the Mannion family of Pittsfield, N.H. Instead, a terrible car accident left 18-year-old Lucas Mannion with severe head trauma that brought him to the MGH for emergency surgery and treatment. For the past two months, his entire family has traveled back and forth from New Hampshire to Boston to look after Luke during his recovery.

Among the many challenges the Mannions faced during this time was how to keep their family members and friends apprised of Luke's condition and progress. "We were getting hundreds of phone calls from our family, friends and kids at Luke's school," says Dennis Mannion, Luke's father. "We couldn't keep up with it all."

Fortunately, on the Mannion's second day at the MGH, their oldest daughter picked up a CarePages brochure that would help the family solve their communication predicament. The brochure explained how to create a free webpage offered by the MGH that allows patients and their families to share information 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In a matter of minutes, the Mannions created their own CarePage from their home computer. The CarePage kept their circle of friends and family involved with Luke's care, even though many of them could not travel to Boston to visit him in person. CarePages enabled the Mannions to post daily updates of Luke's progress for those invited to the site through a secured password. Visitors can send Luke good wishes by posting to the message board on his CarePage. The Mannions also displayed pictures of Luke before the accident in the photo gallery section of the site.

"We've received hundreds of online visits since we started the CarePage," says Mannion. "Some people visit the site almost every day. It really shows us how many people care about Luke and are concerned."

CarePages was piloted on several MGH patient care units with positive feedback from patients like Luke and his family. The site now is being offered hospitalwide to all MGH inpatients and outpatients. Patients are encouraged to set up their site at home before hospitalization if possible or, if they are at the MGH, they can use the computer terminals in the Blum Patient and Family Learning Center.

To access CarePages, visit www.carepages.com/mgh or the MGH website at www.massgeneral.org/carepage. Easy-to-follow instructions show users how to set up their own CarePage.