Appropriate use of cardiac telemetry monitoring can provide critical patient information such as fatal arrhythmias and ischemia. This requires resources for device infrastructure, device maintenance, and human resources for oversight, which contribute to increased healthcare costs. But overutilization of cardiac telemetry is an all-too common problem in today’s hospitals, taxing resources without providing an appreciable benefit to the patient.

Reform efforts have pushed healthcare organizations to analyze and identify high-cost practices and to address device overuse and improve efficiency. Telemetry device overuse generally occurs because of a lack of understanding of guideline-based indications or non-adherence to known indications. Eliminating inappropriate use of cardiac telemetry can decrease alert fatigue and generate significant cost savings for health systems and hospitals. Reducing inappropriate telemetry use is attainable and there are systems available today to help manage this more effectively than ever.

See how telemetry optimization helped one U.S. hospital realize more than $900,000 in savings in its first year of implementation.