How Telesitting Carts Enhance Patient Monitoring

Many patients within the acute care setting are at risk of harming themselves or others. Whether these individuals are prone to falls, aggression, or wandering, they require constant monitoring to prevent the worst from occurring. Until recently, that meant assigning a trained staff member – a bedsitter – to their room on a 24/7 basis. However, the digital revolution is quickly changing the entire healthcare landscape, and bedsitting is no exception.
The latest exciting innovation? Telesitting carts that allow a single observer to efficiently monitor multiple patients at once -- without sacrificing either safety or quality of care.

Telesitting Systems are Superior to In-Person

 Monitoring

Inadequate patient monitoring is a costly problem for acute care providers. Left alone, at-risk patients can cause severe injury to themselves or others, resulting in the need for additional medical interventions and opening the facility to a genuine threat of medical malpractice litigation. Although providers can easily spend seven figures employing a trained bedsitter to monitor a single patient, evidence suggests this expensive approach has a limited impact when it comes to reducing the potential for harm. Is it any wonder that more and more acute care providers are exploring telemonitoring carts as a viable alternative to traditional bedsitter monitoring? In fact, many facilities that have already made the transition are realizing tremendous benefits from their telesitting programs:

• Northern Westchester Hospital: A 54% reduction in falls and a 72% reduction in sitter costs.
• TIRR Memorial Hermann: A nearly 9% reduction in falls, a 60% reduction in sitter costs, and a 51% reduction in staff injuries related to the care of brain-injured patients.
• UC San Diego Health: Decreased sitter costs by $2.5 million over two years.
• Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital: 20% reduction in falls and $186,000 reduction in sitter costs.

How Telesitting Monitoring Works

Telesitting may be an ideal solution for patients who would otherwise require one-on-one in-room monitoring, including those who:

• Have a history of falls.
• Suffer from dementia, confusion, or agitation.
• Are prone to wandering.
• Are undergoing drug or alcohol detox.
• Are on ventilators.
• Are potentially aggressive or violent.
  
  

Rather than a bedsitter, telesitting carts equipped with two-way audio and visual monitoring capabilities are deployed to patients’ rooms. A trained technician– usually a certified nursing assistant or medical tech – can continuously observe multiple patients from a remote monitoring station, even at night when rooms are dark.

The two-way audio and visual capabilities allow the observer to communicate with and redirect any patient who attempts to get out of bed, pull out their IV, or engages in other potentially harmful behaviour. The observer can also summon whatever assistance the patient might need and activate an alarm to alert on-site staff to any imminent danger.

The Advantages of a Telemonitoring Cart

Telesitting allows a trained technician to observe a dozen or more patients from a single monitor, often with complete remote control of all in-room medical devices. This capability offers acute care providers a multitude of advantages over the standard bedsitter approach that goes well beyond the already-substantial cost saving:

• Scale Up Patient Care and Safety: Telesitting carts can help facilities scale up care when they’re short-staffed or unable to afford enough bedsitters for their patient loads.
• Reduce Staff Burnout: By taking on patient monitoring, virtual sitters can alleviate many of the factors that contribute to burnout among nurses, hospital aides, and healthcare security staff.
• Better Allocation of Staff: Because floor staff no longer have to act as bedsitters, telesitting carts mean more hands are free to deliver patient care.
• Continuous Monitoring: Telesitting carts can provide continuous monitoring as patients wait to be transferred to a higher or lower level of care or an outside facility.
• Deployable Across the Acute Care Environment: Portable telesitting carts can be deployed anywhere patients need constant monitoring, including hospital rooms, the ICU, and the NICU.
• Faster Access to Care: A telesitting cart with two-way audio and video capability can connect acute care patients with offsite physicians and specialists when a rapid response is essential.
• Head-Off Risky Behaviors: The constant monitoring facilitated by a telesitting cart can act as a detriment to risky behaviours or dangerous interactions with others. For example, constant observation can encourage compliance with mask mandates and other COVID-19 protocols and dissuade visitors from bringing a patient outside medications or foods that might endanger their health.
• Improve Staff Safety: Telesitting carts enable the remote observer to act as a second set of eyes when patients have a propensity for aggression and violence against staff.
• Useful Metrics to Improve Care: By requiring the telesitting to log patient behaviours and incidents, telesitting systems provide hospitals and other acute care facilities with useful analytics on falls and other adverse events. This data will ultimately prove useful in identifying areas for improvement.
• Offers Family Members Peace of Mind: With the telesitting system engaged, families can feel confident that patients will receive the close monitoring they need to remain safe, freeing loved ones to go home and rest. Family members can also communicate with the observer to voice concerns, make requests and ask questions, and even inform the telesitting when they’re leaving for the evening.

Innovative Telemonitoring Solutions for Today’s Acute Care Providers

First Products is ready to partner with hospitals and other acute care facilities to ensure the success of their telehealth, telesitting, and telemonitoring programs.

From FIRST TeleView^TM carts, mounts, and tablet roll stands, we offer a range of innovative solutions specifically designed to help providers expand access to care, ensure the safety of both patients and staff, reduce clinician burnout, and lower costs without jeopardizing clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction.

First Products has been working to improve patient care for over 50 years. If we don’t already have your perfect-fit solution available, our experts are ready to customize one that’s ideally suited to your needs. To Learn More and to Arrange for Your Complimentary Demo, Contact First Products Today at 800.854.8304.