While mHealth continues to make headway in the healthcare delivery arena, a number of solutions that promote safety and security are finding traction in the hospital as well.
Versus Technology, a Traverse City, Mich.-based developer of real-time location systems (RTLS) solutions, recently announced that New Jersey's Trinitas Regional Medical Center is using the company's technology to protect staff from combative patients. Meanwhile, Stanley Healthcare of Waltham, Mass., has announced that its Wi-Fi-based Hugs infant protection solution is being deployed in 156 hospitals in Saudi Arabia.
Mobile solutions have long been used to track valuable equipment throughout the hospital campus, and they're seeing increasing use in inventory management as officials seek to cut down on lost or surplus items. Newer versions of the technology are now being used to locate and track people, from patients who might wander away from their rooms to staff who need immediate access to support services.
Trinitas, based in Elizabeth, N.J., first deployed Versus' Visibility Staff Assist platform in 2013 in its emergency department, enabling staff to use their badges to summon help for medical emergencies or to signal a Code Gray (combative patient or visitor). Since then, the hospital has expanded the platform to inpatient and outpatient psychiatric units, as well as the drug counseling facility, and plans on adding it to the med/surg unit in the near future.
"Many of our staff work in areas where they are sometimes alone with volatile patients. Previously, if a nurse needed help, she wouldn’t be able to get it right away. But by pushing their badge button, not only does it alert other people, but it also shows the nurse’s location,” said John Dougherty, the hospital's security director, in a press release issued by Versus. "We’re always going to have our Code Grays, but Staff Assist may cut down on actual physical assault, because of improved response times.”
“Before, I had nothing to alert my co-workers if I was in trouble, but now I have this badge," added Denise Loneker, RN, CEN, a nurse manager in Trinitas' ED, in the release. "It helps improve morale in the ED, knowing that help is just a button-push away.”
According to The U.S. Department of Justice, 10 percent of workplace violence occurs in the medical field, behind only law enforcement and retail. In a survey conducted in 2011 by the Emergency Nurses Association, meanwhile, 55 percent of nurses surveyed indicated they had suffered physical or verbal abuse during a seven-day period.
On the flip side of the coin is patient safety, and nowhere is that more acute than in labor and delivery and infant care. Between 1984 and 2012, roughly 270 infants were abducted from hospitals.
Stanley Healthcare introduced its Hugs infant protection system in 1998, and with the acquisition of Aeroscout in 2012 added Wi-Fi-based RTLS technology to the platform, now in use in more than 1,300 hospitals around the globe. This past June, the company unveiled a new version of the Hugs solution that enables newborns to be tracked wherever they are in the hospital campus. In addition, the new solution can be used for automatic temperature monitoring of breast milk refrigeration units, blanket warmers and pharmaceutical cabinets; better asset tracking; better communication links so that staff can call for help for patients or themselves; and automated, round-the-clock hand hygiene compliance monitoring to help prevent infections.
Saudi officials had deployed the previous version of the Hugs solution in 2011 in 16 hospitals. Now they're expanding it throughout the kingdom, where more than 350,000 babies are born each year.
“We previously deployed Stanley Healthcare’s Hugs Infant Protection Solution in 16 of the largest birthing hospitals throughout the kingdom. Since that time, we’ve received excellent feedback from caregivers and parents who appreciate the high level of security and protection it provides,” said Abdullah Al-Wuhaibi, advisor to Saudi Arabia's Minister of Health and general director of ICT, in a press release. “Now, we’re pleased to implement Stanley Healthcare’s Hugs infant protection solution on Wi-Fi, which we’ve determined to be best-in-class based on a thorough review of alternative approaches.”
