Wireless systems that help
nurses keep track of patients and equipment save time and improve patient
safety.
“It makes life easier when we’re
trying to locate a patient or equipment,” said Lanie Robinson, RN, MSN, nurse
manager and clinical nurse specialist on a medical-surgical unit at Memorial
Hospital Miramar, in Florida.
“You don’t have to go all over the unit to find something, you just click on
the computer and know where they are.”
Memorial Miramar nurses place a radio-frequency
identification badge from Versus Technology Inc. on each patient. The device
enables the tracking system to monitor where in the building the patient is at
all times, whether he is in the room, in radiology or en route somewhere.
“We go to the floor plan, and a
red dot shows the patient moving from one area to another,” Robinson explained.
At discharge, the system lets nurses know the bed is available.
In Memorial Miramar’s emergency
department, patients receive a tag at triage or upon arrival by ambulance.
Monitors suspended from the ceiling enable nurses and physicians to quickly
assess what care patients have received.
“It tells us where the patient
is in the emergency room and in which stage of treatment the patient is in,”
said Barbara Williams, RN, clinical nurse manager of the emergency room at
Memorial Miramar.
Physicians order blood work and
other tests electronically. The board will show as results become available,
such as one of three back and one pending. If the laboratory takes more than an
hour, Williams will follow up, helping with patient flow and throughput. It
also lets Williams visually assess nurses’ workloads, allowing her to assign
new cases more appropriately.
“It is a joy to work with,” said
Williams about the system. “I was hesitant at first. I’m an experienced nurse.
This technology has helped me, as a manager, keep track of what is going on in
the emergency department at any given time.”
Memorial Miramar opened earlier this year with the
tracking system, electronic medical records and other innovative technologies.
It provided nurses with extensive training for the various integrated computer
systems.
Existing hospitals adding the
systems have documented improved efficiency with tracking systems. Albert Einstein
Medical Center,
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, installed the Versus system
two years ago. Jeanette A. Trotman, RN, BSN, CEN, co-director of emergency
services at Albert Einstein, appreciates some of the special features the
system offers.
The computer will flag patients
treated in the emergency department in the past, indicating dates and the
discharge summary. It also will place an on-screen “telephone icon” reminder
next to the names of patients whose attendings have requested a call if the
patient is admitted. A different “alphabet-block” icon indicates a pediatric
case.
“It’s incredibly easy to get
used to,” Trotman said. “You have a lot of information at your fingertips.”
Albert Einstein’s ED nurses and
physicians also wear the tags. That allows the system to track what personnel
saw the patient and at what time. It has virtually eliminated patient
complaints that no one has been in to care for him or her.
Trotman said nurses have not
objected to wearing the devices, because the hospital has placed monitoring
censors only in patient-care areas, not in break rooms, the cafeteria or
lavatories.
The system lets Trotman see
which of her 48 beds are open, so she can bring patients back accordingly.
Patients receive a color code based on a five-level triage. During disaster
drills, she can immediately give authorities an accurate number of patients the
hospital can accept.
“It really helps with flow and
overall management,” Trotman said.
Judy Patterson, RN, BSHA, CNOR,
director of surgical services at Hannibal
Regional Hospital,
in Missouri,
has noted improved efficiency in her operating suites since installing Radianse
location technology and the PeriOptimum PathFinder tracking system about a year
ago.
“It has helped us be more
efficient in the OR,” Patterson said. “Before we implemented it, our
utilization of the ORs was 57 percent. Now it’s over 70 percent.”
Nurses clip a radio-frequency
identification badge onto each patient arriving at registration. During
procedures, the tag hangs on the IV tubing.
The system not only tracks what
operating room the patient is in, it also is used to indicate when induction
begins and stops and when the surgeon opens and begins closing. Families in the
waiting room can access a computer, using a unique code number, to monitor
their loved one’s progress.
Radianse Vice President John
Pantano explained the system also offers patient safety benefits. Nurses at one
hospital using the system noted a tagged patient was placed in the incorrect
operating room, preventing a wrong-patient surgery.
Tracking systems also can help
hospitals ensure patients do not wander off. Nurses can set the system to sound
an alert if a patient starts to leave the building or the floor.
Memorial Miramar also uses its tracking system to
locate equipment, including portable computers, X-ray machines, IV pumps, EKG
machines and wheelchairs. Each device receives a tag that emits a unique
identification code. Robinson said it has cut down on nurses searching for a
needed device.
“The real benefit comes from
equipment utilization. You lose less equipment and can manage equipment
better,” Pantano said. “Hospitals probably have two to three times the infusion
pumps needed. The reason is nobody can find one when he or she needs one. If
they knew where they were, they could buy fewer pumps and put the money into
something more beneficial to patient care.”
© 2005. AMN Healthcare, Inc. All Rights Reserved.