Adverse Events
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Defined as unintended injuries caused by mismanagement during hospitalization rather than the disease process, these events annually contribute to billions of additional costs and thousands of lost lives. Unfortunately, many hospitals, especially in non-ICU units, face challenges in identifying adverse events before they occur. Thus, many adverse events are attended to as they are occurring rather than prior to their onset.
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Lack of Real Time Data
Systems outside of the ICU often do not provide real time data. Systems that do are expensive, have limited or no interoperability, or require EMR data
Demanding Patient Ratios
Non-ICU nurses may care for up to five or six patients at once. This makes it impossible to solely rely on manual monitoring of patients to observe event markers.
Poor Technology
Existing Early Warning Systems rely on non-patient specific rules. This potentially leads to false positives/negatives or missed events.
Fortunately, many adverse events are believed to be preventable. In many cases, unusual fluctuations in a patient's vital signs often serve as an indication of an impending adverse event. For example, heart rate variability and increases in respiration rate and temperature levels have been identified to be common precursors to sepsis.
With the growing shortage of nurses in the US, high levels of nurse burnout, and the aging nursing workforce, hospitals are in dire need of a robust, cost effective solution that enables non-ICU nurses to be alerted, in real time, about changes in the condition of their patients regardless of their location in the hospital.