Challenge

In-hospital safety sitters are associated with a range of disadvantages. Safety monitors are a valuable resource in maintaining patient safety. Yet, there are limitations:

• They are typically used in hospitals to directly observe 1 to 2 patients to prevent patients from falling or injuring themselves.
• As a resource, they are not always available to nurs­ing staff due to the difficulty in predicting when they are needed.
• Their use increases the costs of delivering care.

Hence, this frequently results in ac­quiring per diem staff or reassigning staff to monitor fall risk patients. Such alterations in staffing can lead to job dissatisfaction.

Solution

Remote Video Monitoring with AvaSure. Remote video monitoring provides a live-stream video of patient activity as an additional safety intervention in preventing falls.

This technology provides an innovative fall prevention strategy that allows the sitter to moni­tor multiple patients at one time.

It is important to keep in mind that sitters require training to use the software functions, such as navigating the camera and alert options, and have the confidence needed to verbally intervene when they rec­ognize unsafe patient behaviors. Additionally, the remote sitter must be able to multitask, such as demonstrating competencies using the PC while monitoring the television screen, allowing them to visualize each of the patients being monitored.

While remote video monitoring may not completely end patient falls, it is an additional resource that can be used in the clinical ar­senal of fall interventions—and having an extra set of eyes to monitor patient activity is always helpful.

Conclusions

This technology provides an innovative fall prevention strategy that can improve fall-related patient outcomes and sit­ter costs.