A need for change

“We knew there had to be a better way,” says April Crim, BSN, RN, CCRN. As Clinical Director of INTEGRIS Southwest Medical Center in Oklahoma City, OK, Crim has significant responsibility for hospital telemetry. “By leveraging state-of-the-art technology, we felt we could enhance management of the entire telemetry process to improve efficiency and improve outcomes, while cutting costs. The challenge was how to begin,” she said.

With that in mind, Crim and her team engaged with Spacelabs to take advantage of the power of its SafeNSound monitoring software system to address these issues, with building in new efficiencies, enhancing outcomes, and cutting costs as the major goals. SafeNSound software that leverages digital technology by providing tools that assist with alarm management, ensuring that devices are properly associated to the correct patients, and adding dashboards that facilitate collaboration between caregivers while streamlining communications. In the telemetry
environment, SafeNSound automates many traditionally manual tasks, closes the loop among all telemetry stakeholders and processes, provides accountability in telemetry services, and communicates information directly to the patient record. For the entire monitoring environment, it provides data to clinicians to assist in their alarm management initiatives and improves workflow when associating patients to specific devices to ensure that the correct patient information gets to the right patient chart.

INTEGRIS had already been using Spacelabs’ monitors throughout the hospital system. Given the success of that relationship, expanding its involvement with this groundbreaking cloud-based system was a natural step to better manage clinical workflow and increase patient safety.

Within the confines of this unconnected, manual environment, staff were challenged to provide high quality patient care. Standardized procedures were few and far between. Monitoring technicians, in particular, were overburdened by alarms, manual tasks, and an enormous volume of communications to keep patient care moving forward.

Identify Key Workflow Weaknesses, Analyze Findings and Set Project Goals

As a result of their review, key challenge areas were identified. These included the telemetry admission process, staff notifications, task duplication, alarm fatigue, equipment accountability, appropriate telemetry usage, bedside staff education, and strip interpretation. Additionally, the hospital placed special emphasis on streamlining the tasks performed by its over-burdened monitoring techs, who play a key role in or are significantly affected by many of the problem areas above. Initially the hospital had one monitoring tech stationed in the intensive care area and three in the central monitoring unit (“CMU”).
Crucial to the success of the project was analyzing all telemetry workflows involved to understand the issues in each problem area so that they could be appropriately addressed. Also important was identifying current telemetry performance and setting benchmarks for comparison at project completion.

Powerful technology advances monitoring

Better Processes Manage Patients Appropriately, Enhance Care and Cut Costs

Significant Central Monitoring Unit Task Improvements—What Changed?

Below are key improvements enabled by SafeNSound, which boosted Integris workflow and patient care.

Improvements within first year of implementation

Measurement and reporting were key to implementing workflow improvements. SafeNSound measured, reported, and analyzed key data to enable INTEGRIS workflow and patient throughput enhancements.

Quantifiable financial results

INTEGRIS realized significant telemetry cost savings by using SafeNSound. Its analysis and reporting feature helped to reduce unnecessary telemetry usage 30% in year one. Specific details of the cost-savings appear below. In addition, the hospital was better able to manage resources, eliminating one position and consolidating three current techs in the central monitoring unit.

Conclusion

In general, due to outdated manual processes and inconsistent communication, telemetry management for many hospitals today has long been rife with challenges that potentially compromise patient care and add significantly to costs. Convinced that there must be a better solution, the Nursing Management team at INTEGRIS Southwest Medical Center implemented Spacelabs’ innovative SafeNSound software solution with a particular focus on improving communication and streamlining the tasks of its monitoring technicians.

After implementing SafeNSound, the hospital saw immediate improvements well beyond monitoring tech responsibilities due to enhanced alarm management, patient-to-device pairing, and dashboard communication across all staff engaged in the telemetry process.

INTEGRIS continues to benefit as SafeNSound evolves, adding features based on customer needs and requirements. As hospitals have moved into a data-driven world where decisions are information-driven and evidence-based, SafeNSound continues to support this, bringing an ever-increasing amount of meaningful data to the users’ fingertips.

About INTEGRIS Southwest Medical Center
Southwest Medical Center, one of eight INTEGRIS facilities, is Oklahoma’s center for health care excellence. With a commitment to leveraging state-of-the-art technology, Southwest Medical Center has a decades-long proven track record of providing an unsurpassed level of care, reaching beyond the walls of their Oklahoma City facility into the neighborhoods and communities that need care the most.

Learn more about SafeNSound

This product is not available for sale in all countries. Please contact your local Spacelabs Healthcare representative or regional office for more information. Case study reference: 030-2508-00 Rev B