I have decided today to report some positive nurse news today, rather than talk about shortages, Covid problems, and other issues.
To that end, I’ve come across a report on how University Hospitals (UH) of Cleveland are using technology to positively impact nurse monitoring and help against the all-too-familiar burnout that has been occurring due to overworked medical staff and departments stretched thin.
Masimo Patient SafetyNet™, is a remote monitoring and supplemental alarm system, that the University Hospitals have been using since 2016, to great effect.
The system is designed to support nursing workflows while offering sophisticated means of tracking patient care so that nurses can work more efficiently.
As Sara Knowles, MSN, a Clinical Nurse Specialist at UH recently stated:
“The technology allows us to have eyes on our patients 24/7, which has proven especially valuable during our nursing shortage and the global pandemic.”
National Nurse Turnover Rates
The statistics certainly call for such initiatives and investments. During the pandemic, more than 80% of hospitals across the US have reported an increase in nurse turnover.
In a survey of approximately 20,000 nurses, (that bear in mind was taken during the early stages of the pandemic in 2020) 18% of nurses intended to resign, with 50% responded that work was negatively impacting their health.
Staffing levels even then were low, as 47% of those that took part in the survey reported that insufficient staffing contributed to their desire to leave the profession.
Furthermore, a separate observational study that included over 200,000 patients across 43 hospital units found an association between increased patient mortality and insufficient nurse staffing levels.
To an extent, any of us that work in the healthcare profession know all of this through first-hand experience anyway.
And once again, I am talking about the negative… this news item was supposed to be positive.
Let’s take a look at how the technology being used at University Hospitals (UH) of Cleveland has helped the nurses there, and could well be implemented elsewhere.
University Hospitals (UH) of Cleveland & Masimo Patient SafetyNet™
In a report published by Masimo on Youtube (see above), UH staff describe a positive impact of using Masimo Patient SafetyNet.
The continuous remote monitoring system has been very well received by nurses, with many having the opinion that the quality of care they are able to provide has been improved.
Some hard stats support this too.
Within three weeks of implementing the technology, UH found that the average time between patient’s vital signs being taken at the point of care and the official recording into the electronic medical record (EMR) had decreased significantly.
There was a time saving here of over 55 minutes. This streamlining of procedures has provided efficient time-saving in many areas, UH state.
So much so, the UH is now in moves to expand the use of Patient SafetyNet across 5 more of its hospitals
As Michelle Hereford, UH’s Chief Nursing Executive explained,
“We’ve found that Patient SafetyNet’s continuous surveillance monitoring and automation capabilities help lower the burden on nurses and support them in providing quality care for every patient and catching potential patient deterioration before it’s too late. Coupled with the improvements we’ve seen in efficiency, staff confidence, and staff satisfaction since installing the system, expanding use of Patient SafetyNet is frankly a no-brainer.”
Watch this space, in my opinion. It is clear something is needed to boost workflow efficiency for nurses, in an environment where more and more are leaving the sector.
Hopefully, technology such as Patient SafetyNet will not only help to retain nursing staff, it may help to encourage others to begin a career in the field knowing that investment in both patient care and employee welfare is being made.
Time will tell.
