Continuous monitoring reduces hospital stay

Results of the study, published in the American Journal of Medicine, showed a decrease in the overall length of stay by 0.37 days, a reduction of 9 percent. The average stay in the ICU for patients transferred from the medical-surgical unit was significantly lower in the intervention unit post implementation by about two days, a 45 percent reduction. Furthermore, the rate of code blue events decreased by 86 percent.

In a press statement, Dr. David Bates, director of the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice, senior vice president for Quality and Safety and Chief Quality Officer at Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said, "Early detection of patient deterioration in general care units should be a top priority for healthcare institutions. Continuous monitoring is a key factor in recognizing and promptly responding to early warning signs which should help decrease patient morbidity and mortality, as well as length of hospital stay and costs. The study also showed that the continuous monitoring used did not cause alarm fatigue, because of the analytics used by EarlySense which 'weeds out' the false positives."

This study comes on the heels of last month's announcement that EarlySense had entered into a partnership with Welch Allyn to provide healthcare systems with an integrated solution that combines EarlySense continuous respiratory and heart rate monitoring capabilities with the Welch Allyn Connex® Clinical Surveillance System (CSS). Having these capabilities offers customers respiratory monitoring to detect patient deterioration early, as well as movement detection and turn reminders to help prevent pressure ulcers and reduce patient falls.

In a company press release, Stephen F. Meyer, president and  CEO of Welch Allyn said, "Healthcare decision-makers face many challenges on multiple fronts. They are tasked with improving patient care, increasing quality and avoiding adverse events—all while reducing costs. The combined product offering from Welch Allyn and EarlySense covers a large spectrum of needs and provides solutions for more efficient, safer monitoring of patients. The integrated product …is the only vital signs system with advanced contact-free safety capabilities to help reduce adverse events such as early detection of patient deterioration, falls and pressure ulcers.”