It’s really not a surprise that there are institutions and companies that have labeled the most played game of today – POKEMON GO – as a distraction. Employees play it during office ours, cars suddenly stop in the middle of the road, students pay more attention to it in class; all of this just to catch pokemon and be on the look out for rare ones. The game, however, isn’t all that bad. This hospital in Michigan actually uses it to get patients out of their rooms.
In the past, young patients at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich., shuffled down the hallways without speaking to each other, but now it’s not uncommon to see them stop and talk near a Pokemon Go hotspot, according to J.J Bouchard, digital media manager, and certified child life specialist at the hospital.
“It’s a fun way to encourage patients to be mobile,” Bouchard said. “This app is getting patients out of beds and moving around.”
And it really works! Because the hospital looked at the game from a different perspective, they were able to create a positive outcome from playing the game.