Continuous Monitoring Reduces Length of Stay, Code Blue, ICU Time

A study conducted by researchers from Harvard University Medical School and published in The American Journal of Medicine concluded that continuous contact-free monitoring on a medical-surgical unit is associated with a significant decrease in patients’ total length of stay in the hospital, code blue events, and intensive care unit (ICU) stay time for patients who had an intra-hospital transfer from the medical-surgical unit.


A study conducted by researchers from Harvard University Medical School and published in The American Journal of Medicine concluded that continuous contact-free monitoring on a medical-surgical unit is associated with a significant decrease in patients’ total length of stay in the hospital, code blue events, and intensive care unit (ICU) stay time for patients who had an intra-hospital transfer from the medical-surgical unit.

 In the controlled 7,643-patient study, researchers compared a 33-bed medical-surgical unit (intervention unit) to a sister control unit for a nine-month pre-implementation and a nine-month post implementation period. Outcome results showed a decrease in the overall length of stay by 0.37 days, a reduction of 9 percent. The average stay in the ICU for patient transferred from the medical-surgical unit was significantly lower in the intervention unit post-implementation by about two days, a 45 percent reduction. Furthermore, the rate of code blue events decreased by 86 percent.

 The monitoring system in the study was developed by Waltham, Mass.-based EarlySense and is currently installed in hospitals and rehabilitation centers in the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia.

 "Current literature shows that in the 24 hours prior to ICU admission, as many as 80 percent of patients have had abnormal values for heart rate, respiratory rate and oxygenation," EarlySense executives said in a written statement announcing the results.

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