Presbyterian Hospital implements Defensive Monitoring solution for their post-surgical patients

Oct 7 2009

Presbyterian Hospital will “go live” today with a Defensive Monitoring™ solution for their post-surgical patients: A Prefense™ Early Detection and Notification™ System from Nihon Kohden America, Inc. The Prefense™ system is used to detect early warning signs and changes in a patient’s condition through the continuous automated collection of key vital signs: respiration rate, heart rate, pulse oximetry and non-invasive blood pressure using a wireless transmitter and can be viewed on a central surveillance system. Clinicians are automatically alerted when a patient’s vital signs change, providing for a better opportunity for early intervention and treatment. This Defensive Monitoring strategy is in support of Presbyterian’s ongoing commitment to improve quality of care and patient safety. With 453 beds and 30,000 admissions per year, Presbyterian Hospital is the largest acute care hospital in New Mexico, and provides a full range of medical and surgical healthcare services.

Mark McDonald, RN, Director of Nursing Operations, said, “The automation of vital sign collection and alert notifications to our clinicians for our post-surgical patient population is going to allow every opportunity to respond faster to critical changes in patient vital signs. We are using Prefense specifically for patients we have identified to be at a higher risk for adverse events. We are also looking at expanding the system to carefully monitor patients who are receiving narcotics through a patient controlled analgesic device in an effort to detect drug-induced hypotension or respiratory distress.”

Focused on improving quality of patient care, McDonald was instrumental in the decision to procure the Early Detection and Notification™ system from Nihon Kohden. “I believe what the patients will be most satisfied with is having the NTX transmitter continuously monitor their vital signs while they are free to ambulate on the medical/surgical floor. This provides a new level of patient comfort and safety in this area of the hospital,” said McDonald.

Mike Dashefsky, Vice President, Nihon Kohden America, said, “We are pleased to partner with Presbyterian Hospital as we feel that both organizations’ vision for quality improvement and patient safety are closely aligned with one another. Presbyterian is a facility well-known for its high standards of continual quality improvements. We will continue to work together to identify other opportunities that will benefit from this technology and surveillance.”

Source: Presbyterian Hospital