Falls and fall injuries are one of the most common adverse patient events in the VHA and the consequences can be devastating, especially for patients who are elderly, like those residing in VA Community Living Centers (CLC’s).
Patient falls are a high-volume, high-cost problem in health care and a leading cause of increased morbidity and mortality in hospitals. Not to mention, falls result in significant consequences that add to the burden of care for elders in health care systems and nursing homes.
Many interventions including physical patient sitters, or care companions, have not been proven to significantly decrease falls. Furthermore, the burden on hospitals to provide sitters on demand and in crucial safety situations, amidst a varying census can present patient triaging and staffing challenges for facilities to manage. Rising sitter costs, immediate safety demands, and lack of evidence reveal the need for a more comprehensive, consistent, ready, and available solution.
Remote video monitoring is a vital part of any comprehensive fall prevention program. Video monitoring increases the visibility of patients in a 24/7 environment and is flexible and scalable to each hospital’s unique environment and workflow.
CareView’s Patient Safety System offers the next generation of patient monitoring. Our patented, predictive Virtual Bed Rails® and Virtual Chair Rails® use advanced image analytics to allow a single technician to safely monitor up to 40 patients simultaneously. The number of patients monitored and the methodology in which care teams are alerted of potential adverse events can be adjusted based on workflow, acuity, and facility needs to optimize the integration of the technology into daily patient care.
CareView is the only video monitoring solution on the market that is ideal for VAMC Community Living Centers (CLC’s) due to the lack of alarms in rooms and patient areas. Our patented, predictive technology detects outward motion crossing the virtual rails and sends technicians an audio and visual alert. This reduces strain on monitor technicians, eliminates false alarms, improves response times, and increases patient safety and care outcomes. The equipment supports centralized communications including 2-way audio, allowing for immediate verbal intervention with multiple languages, and pan-tilt-zoom for full room view.
CareView’s Patient Safety System® was introduced at a VA Medical Center in March of 2021. After implementation, the staff gained improved visibility of their resident Veterans, enabling them to reduce both falls and 1:1 sitter usage. In addition to measured decreases in Veteran fall events, they experienced improvements in employee morale and a reduction in workforce stress because of the staff’s increased availability and focus on Veteran care.
At this facility, CareView is used across three separate units in two different buildings. The Veteran population of these units varies from low to high acuity, with factors including cognitive disabilities and memory impairment. The monitoring is done using a hub-and-spoke design, centrally monitoring all the rooms from a single location. From here, trained staff members view the camera feeds and assess the alerts generated by CareView’s patented Virtual Rails® technology.
The alerts are designed to draw the attention of the monitor technician at the central location instead of sounding in the room disturbing or frightening the occupants. The virtual monitor technician has the option to communicate with the Veterans using pre-recorded audio messages in 18 different languages, or by initiating a two-way communication line through CareView. In situations where the virtual monitor technician determines that the Veteran needs assistance or is not responding to redirection attempts, then they can escalate the event to the floor staff to physically intervene. For more case studies and data, contact us here.
As a result of the CareView installation, Veteran falls at this facility were significantly reduced over the course of 3 months. The graph below shows that in Q4 of 2020, the VAMC CLC had an average of 5.0 patient falls per 1,000 patient-hours compared to an average of 4.2 falls per 1,000 patient-hours for their VISN, and 5.3 falls average for the VA at large. The CareView solution went live in late-March 2021 and the VA immediately began to see a decrease in patient falls, with the first full quarter of data post-installation showing a reduction of well over 80% to 0.3 patient falls per 1,000 patient-hours.
