Royal Philips, a health technology company, has integrated the Philips IntelliVue Guardian system—with automated Early Warning Scoring (EWS)—into the general care units of Saratoga Hospital to help improve patient safety and clinical outcomes.
Since implementing Philips’ patient monitoring technology, Saratoga Hospital has reduced patient transfers to the intensive care unit (ICU) by 63 percent and eliminated patient codes within its 20-bed orthopedic unit, which dropped from three or four codes per year to zero, according to the company.
Company officials said there are 440,000 preventable adverse events that contribute to patient deaths in U.S. hospitals every year. Most patients are not identified until 15 minutes before they suffer cardiac arrest that often lead to an adverse event or admittance to the ICU. In general care units, it is often difficult for caregivers to determine which patients are at the greatest risk of having an unexpected serious adverse event such as cardiac arrest or even death.
Before implementing an automated scoring solution, such as the IntelliVue Guardian Solution, for supporting detection of potential clinical deteriorations, caregivers at Saratoga Hospital would take patients’ vital signs every four hours, and this information would be manually logged into the electronic medical record (EMR) to be further assessed by nurses.
Using Saratoga Hospital’s modified early warning score (MEWS) algorithm, the IntelliVue Guardian Solution, as implemented, streamlines the manual process by automating the scoring that aids clinicians in identifying deviations in a patient’s vital signs, officials said.
According to the company, it also incorporates an automated respiration rate into its EWS calculations to further enhance quality and accuracy. Respiration rate, which is not always captured correctly, is an important factor in accurately predicting both sepsis and cardiac arrest. In most cases, this early identification occurs hours before a potential adverse event, giving Saratoga’s clinicians time to intervene prior to patient deterioration.
“Improving patient safety and reducing codes in the general ward is a top priority for our team,” said Diane Bartos, ICU administrative director at Saratoga Hospital. “In order to provide the best care possible, we must equip our caregivers with the technological resources they need to be successful. Our caregivers use the Philips IntelliVue Guardian Solution every day, helping them to make more confident care decisions and intervene earlier.”
“The general floor is busy with increased patient acuity due to chronic illness, so it’s critical to provide clinicians with technology that allows for more efficient work flows,” said Felix Baader, business leader of monitoring and analytics at Philips. “With our solution implemented, providers like Saratoga Hospital can have clinical insights they need to help improve patient care while enhancing their workflow.
“The results they’ve seen include reduction in patient codes and transfers to critical care. This shows the true impact and value of this type of collaboration, as well as how technology can help hospitals address the quadruple aim, by improving patient outcomes and staff satisfaction, enhancing patient experience, and lowering costs.”
Philips’ full suite of integrated patient monitoring solutions was showcased at the 2018 Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition in March at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas.