By Julie Andrews, MSN, RN, CCRN
Clinical Analyst, MD Buyline

More than 6,000 nurses and related health care professionals gathered May 22–25 in Houston to study, learn, and socialize. They were attending the American Association of Critical Care Nurses National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exhibition 2017, where two of the dominant topics were wireless data transmission and alarm management.

Wireless Data Transmission
In 2005, the Joint Commission (TJC) introduced standards for the flow of patients throughout the hospital. These standards were revised in 2013 and 2014 with a focus on the use of data to measure and identify patient flow issues in the hospital. TJC identified that problems with patient flow can lead to increased waiting times, diversions, length of stay, medical errors, and sentinel events (Calloway, 2012).



In an effort to support TJC’s recommendations for improving the patient flow through the acute care setting, vendors continue to improve the capability of their devices to communicate to a central data system throughout the hospital. The two leading vendors in patient monitoring, GE Healthcare and Philips, offer technology that allows for seamless patient data collection throughout the patient journey.

Alarm Management
"Make improvements to ensure that alarms on medical equipment are heard and responded to on time,” was one of the TJC’s 2017 Hospital National Patient Safety Goals.

The intent is to make improvements to ensure that alarms on medical equipment are heard and responded to on time. GE Healthcare, Philips, and Nihon Kohden have all incorporated alarm management systems into their patient monitoring. These include the ability to customize the alarm to coincide with hospital policy. For example, if default alarm settings are determined to be different in ICU than in a step-down area, these alarm management systems will allow modifications to default settings to accommodate each area even when using the exact same model of monitor. Alarms, alarm escalation, and mobile devices that travel with the nurse were all heavily featured at the convention. In addition, each particular system is showing improved capabilities to retrieve patient data for up to seven days post-discharge. This can be vital in the case of event review.

About the Author: Julie Andrews joined MD Buyline as a clinical analyst in 2016 with over 20 years of experience in an acute care hospital setting. At MD Buyline she specializes in advising clients in critical care, nursing, and patient monitoring equipment.

Health IT Homepage