RECLAIM TIME ON THE MEDICAL-SURGICAL FLOOR

Customizing patient parameters can reduce alarms by 50 percent.([FOOTNOTE=American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. Alarm management. Crit Care Nurse. 2013;33(5):83–86.. Accessed Jan. 29, 2018.],[ANCHOR=View Abstract],[LINK=http://ccn.aacnjournals.org/content/33/5/83.full]) Using early warning scores (EWS) can decrease average length of stay by 0.4 days.([FOOTNOTE=Bellomo R, Ackerman M, Bailey M, et al. A controlled trial of electronic automated advisory vital signs monitoring in general hospital wards. Crit Care Med. 2012;40(8):2349–2361. doi: 10.1097/CCM.0b013e318255d9a0.],[ANCHOR=],[LINK=]) Integrating wireless patient monitoring and EWS can reduce falls and increase patient survival by 6 percent.⁸

Wireless patient monitoring can save you 30 minutes per shift.([FOOTNOTE=Turisco F, Rhoads, J. Equipped for Efficiency: Improving Nursing Care Through Technology. Published Dec. 2008. Accessed Jan. 29, 2018.],[ANCHOR=California Health Care Foundation Website],[LINK=https://www.chcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/PDF-EquippedForEfficiency.pdf]) Other innovations, such as using robots to deliver medical supplies, saved clinicians 270 to 450 minutes per day.([FOOTNOTE=Wicklund E. Study: RTLS technology can save hospitals time and money, boost care. Published Nov. 17, 2009. Accessed Jan. 29, 2018.],[ANCHOR=HealthcareITNews Website],[LINK=http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/study-rtls-technology-can-save-hospitals-time-and-money-boost-care])

Mobile devices can save 25 percent of charting time.⁹ Transmitting patient monitoring data automatically to a charting system saved nurses one to two minutes of time spent reading and updating charts, per patient.⁹

Wireless communications can dramatically reduce response times to alarms — from 9.5 minutes to 39 seconds, in one case — and increase response rates.⁹ And real-time locating systems can virtually eliminate time spent searching for equipment.¹⁰