Launched in response to the pandemic, PMHU’s Vital Sounds Initiative (VSI) offers live, one-on-one, virtual bedside concerts to hospital patients in isolated units, including COVID, surgical transplant, and palliative care. Through this program, professional musicians are engaged for weekly two-hour performance periods with specific healthcare facilities. Every week, a facilitator at each hospital initiates a video connection with their PMHU musician via an iPad, and then “takes” the musician to patient rooms to offer personal virtual concerts to isolated patients.
To date, VSI has served a national network of 44 different partner hospitals and healthcare facilities, and nearly 400 paid musicians have performed over 4,400 hours of concerts for more than 21,500 listeners. The breadth of this work has allowed PMHU to develop a series of best practices informed by a deep understanding of what resonates with both patients and facilitators. As VSI continues to evolve, this strength of experience places PMHU in a distinctive position to advocate for the widespread adoption of music interventions in healthcare settings, with the goal of improving patient care across the country.
The direct feedback from patients and hospital staff is truly astonishing. PMHU’s musical interventions have had observable and measurable impact on awareness (previously unresponsive patients becoming active), pain (patients reporting decreased discomfort), and anxiety (one patient’s blood pressure was too high for her to enter pre-op for a necessary surgery until a staff member connected with PMHU musicians to play for her)..
As VSI continues to evolve, we are thrilled this season to be working in partnership with Melanie Ambler, a cellist and medical student at Stanford University. Melanie is developing a training program specifically for artists who work in healthcare settings, with the goal of ensuring they are prepared for this unique performance environment. The training will introduce musicians to the equipment they may see, the sounds and interruptions they may hear, as well as the general workflow of medical providers and the experience of the hospitalized patient. The training will also cover topics such as confidentiality, privacy, and trauma. Melanie will pilot an initial version of this new training program with select VSI musicians beginning in late 2024, and we anticipate being able to offer this training to all VSI musicians by spring 2025.
To learn more about the Vital Sounds Initiative, contact Program Manager Brian Hong at bhong@pmhu.org.
