Smartphones to the Rescue:Nurses help pioneer clinical use of devices for time-saving messaging, bed tracking (266 hits)
and more!
As relief night charge nurse on a medical unit at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, Sarasota, FL, Jackie Baxter, RN-BC, often was frustrated by communication glitches that negatively impacted patient care.
"We were having problems because patients were waiting too long to see a nurse, but the nurses weren't always getting the messages about their patients' needs," she said. Her graduate studies in nursing informatics made her aware of potential solutions, so she was pleased to be invited to participate in a discussion about smartphone solutions.
Integration
Entrepreneur Trey Lauderdale came to Sarasota to discuss healthcare-focused communications solutions software with nurses and information technology (IT) staff.
"There are so many systems in the hospital setting that produce critical information, notifications and alarms," he explained. "There are nurse call systems, infusion pumps, smart beds, monitors, alarms and other sources. That's a lot of information to convey. If your end device is a pager, the nurse won't get all that rich information. Nurses were getting frustrated with the lack of innovation in end-user devices."
Lauderdale brought along smartphones preprogrammed with software that integrates some of that vital data. "The nurse walks in, picks up a smartphone from a charger and logs in," he explained. "The system automatically routes all messages and notifications to the correct end user."
The synergy between clinicians and IT experts at that meeting gave rise to a long-term working relationship.
"We didn't want to build a solution in an ivory tower and push it upon nurses," Lauderdale emphasized. "We did know some things - like nurses don't have the time to push four buttons to get a message - but agreed to form a development partnership with Sarasota Memorial Hospital to give us real-life input."...
Better & Quieter
The smartphone solutions have been a big win all around at Sarasota.
"It really has helped communication on our busy 48-bed unit," Baxter said. "We each have six patients on nights and, if I'm in a room with the door shut caring for a patient, I can't hear outside pages. When I'm in charge of the unit, I can locate the nurses I need right away or they can text me when they need help."
The unit clerk used to walk around the unit on nights if she really needed to find a particular nurse.
"But now she just texts us and we answer her," Baxter said. "She can let me know a doctor is on the phone, for example, and I can text back that I'll need to call him back, or that I'll be right out. The patients appreciate the reduced noise level now that we don't have so many overhead pages."
Moving Forward
Rutherford and his colleagues will soon be adding more nursing applications like the Merck Manual, as well as information from the hospital's bed tracking and nurse call systems.
"We're working right now on a plan to roll the smartphones out to the rest of our nursing units, and it's getting pretty competitive," he noted. "We can't do everyone at once, but it's refreshing to hear nurses say, 'Bring it to our unit,' because they've heard such great word-of-mouth feedback from the telemetry nurses."
