CRIS Radio to serve St. Francis’ patients

Hartford’s St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center and Windsor’s nonprofit CRIS Radio say they are teaming up to provide its patients for the first time with daily audio readings of newspaper and magazine articles via the hospital’s in-room TV system.

CRIS — Connecticut Radio Information System — since 1978 has provided human-narrated readings of printed words, in English and Spanish, via its radio network to Connecticut listeners who are blind or physically unable to hoist or turn the pages of books, magazines and newspapers..

St. Francis claims its CRIS partnership makes it the first American hospital with an alternative to printed Spanish-language articles. It also says it will be the first acute-care hospital in Connecticut to offer an alternative to more than 50 English-language magazines and newspapers streamed to each patient room.

CRIS officials, including Executive Director Diane Weaver Dunne, will publicly demonstrate the service on Tuesday at 10 a.m. at St. Francis’ Connecticut Joint Replacement Institute Auditorium, 114 Woodland St.