Continuous electronic monitoring of patients in a medical-surgical unit was associated with decreased lengths of stay and a reduction in code blue events, according to a study in the American Journal of Medicine.
In a controlled study, researchers from Harvard Medical School in Boston analyzed patient charts in a 33-bed medical-surgical unit for nine months before and after a continuous monitoring solution, EarlySense, was installed. The patients' charts and their total lengths of stay were compared with patients in a control unit.
Results showed the monitoring solution helped decrease the patients' overall length of stay by 0.37 days, a 9 percent reduction. The lengths of stay in the intensive care unit for the intervention patients decreased by two days, a 45 percent reduction. Code blue events decreased by 86 percent in the intervention unit.
"Early detection of patient deterioration in general care units should be a top priority for healthcare institutions," said David Bates, MD, the director of the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice and senior vice president for quality and safety and chief quality officer at Boston-based Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, in a news release. "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."
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