In the Clinic with Pandora

When we first opened Cleary Medical in 2004, the office design included a sound system that allowed either radio or CD music to play throughout the office. Once settled into a daily routine, I quickly discovered that the CD option was cumbersome. The player did not shuffle the songs between the CDs in the player and then Jeannine figured out how to have songs repeat. Not amusing to keep hearing Bobby Darin's "Beyond the Sea" for an hour or so until the song was stuck in your head for three days.

The challenge for the radio was finding a radio station that satisfied both employees and patients. I would have been happy with the classical music station, but the signal was too weak for a clear connection. Employees preferred the harder rock stations, but Tim did not think his elderly patients would appreciate it. After some trial and error, we settled on a middle-of-the-road station that was popular in most offices and businesses in the Portland metro area.

The "soft rock" station worked worked well for us for many years until last Christmas season when the station decided to play nothing but Christmas music from November 1 to December 26.  In the years leading up to this, the station would start interspersing Christmas songs throughout the day, beginning the day after Thanksgiving, and then reserve a 24-hour Christmas music marathon starting Christmas Eve -- they even had a catchy little title "A K--- Musical Christmas Card" to promote it. Last year, though, they started playing Christmas songs just after Halloween and full-blown 24-hour Christmas music from Thanksgiving to the day after Christmas.

Coupled with the preprogrammed run of music that cycled over and over though the day during the regular course of the year, we finally had it, and began searching for options. We considered purchasing programs like Sirius, but it was an expense I really did not want to incur. Then I discovered Pandora. What a really nice app! Like Celtic music?...you have a station! Weird Al?...there it is! Zither music?...you're covered! Not that I am interested in any of these styles, I was just amazed that there was a station for them (or that there was a following for zither music). I settled on the "Solo Piano Station" because it was easy on my ears, not distracting, no singing....just soothing music. Since no one complained, I won an easy victory!

Not gifted with a mind that quickly grasps technology, but very high on getting things off my "to do" list, I opted for the lazy-person's version of piped music and put my iPad in a strategic place concealed in the waiting area. I downloaded the free version of Pandora and we were set to go. It seemed, though, that no matter where I placed it, patients would typically find it and ask if someone had left it. To another point, the free version peters out after an hour or so and it became a chore to unearth the iPad and restart it. The other problem was that, while the sound quality was quite exceptional, it wasn't playing throughout the office, and when on the highest volume setting, it was really loud in the waiting room.

I decided that I would place it in the back office hallway where the music could diffuse in a larger space. This way, any phone conversations, patient conversations and the like were less likely to be overheard. Even though I still had to restart the program every so often, it was much better than the waiting room option. We have been using this for months now and it works very well.

The program has also been a source of practical joking as once Andrew and I changed the station to "Celtic Music" and our ever-so-British Danika almost immediately called us on it, saying she thought the music was depressing and please change it back...in spite of the fact that on occasion the Solo Piano Station we will occasionally play an instrumental version of "Scotland the Brave" (and we take great delight in increasing the volume just to annoy Danika.

So for what it is worth, while the "thrifty" version of Pandora has its drawbacks in terms of starting and restarting the program, it is yet another way staff connects with me. When the iPad goes silent, it is usually the cue for me to call out, "Are we 'STILL LISTENING'?"....and more often than not, Andrew will chime back, "Still listening!" as he opens the iPad and restarts the music.