Nemours Children’s turn to Zebra touch computers to aid nurses

The approach is routing requests through a clinical logistics center to help reduce alarm fatigue.

Nemours Children’s Health System has selected clinical mobility software to improve patient care and efficiency, while reducing alarm fatigue.

The organization has integrated touch computers from Zebra Technologies and integrated mobile healthcare communication tools from Voalte into the electronic health record systems to enable paramedics in its clinical logistics center to more effectively monitor patients and communicate with Nemours nurses and staff at its campuses in Delaware and Florida.

The clinical logistics center at Nemours is a new approach to patient care—it’s staffed by trained paramedics to monitor the health of 250 patients at both locations, while also managing alarm escalations and communicating with patients when needed. Paramedics can communicate quickly with almost 700 providers through the Zebra touch computers.

“We choose Zebra’s touch computer because it offers significantly more capabilities than consumer smartphones,” says James Schnatterer, clinical applications manager at Nemours. “The Zebra mobile computer is a durable, hospital-grade device that is easy to clean and disinfect. It provides better performance and battery life for a full shift, which is critical to our staff.”

Paramedics in the clinical logistics center monitor alarms and forward only critical alerts to nurses’ Zebra mobile computers, saving Nemours about $6 per patient per day. Further, alarm fatigue has been lessened for nurses who no longer have to track false alarms, which accounted for 20 percent of critical alerts they previously received. Mobile computers also are used to improve the efficiency of room turnovers.

Here are more contract wins and go-lives reported during the past week.

Twin Rivers Health and Rehabilitation has selected and implemented the American HealthTech electronic health record system of CPSI. Twin Rivers owns and manages skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities across Tennessee, and the chain went shopping after being dissatisfied by a previous vendor, says Shane Reynolds, chief information officer. “Because AHT is cloud-hosted, we have the ability to remotely access and support all of our facilities, saving travel time and money,” he adds.

Williamson (W.Va.) Memorial Hospital now is live on Meditech as a Service. Meditech has a subscription offering that gives providers a sophisticated electronic health record without heavy IT responsibilities and hardware maintenance. The hospital also has implemented a patient portal.

Springfield (Ill.) Clinic has implemented 17 CareStream imaging systems to improve the quality of imaging for its patients. The radiology staff performs 65,000 exams annually. “CareStream systems deliver excellent image quality and advanced image enhancement software that provides the fine diagnostic detail required by our specialists,” says Brenda Bale, director of diagnostic imaging. “Springfield physicians and advanced practitioners can review imaging studies within minutes, determine a diagnosis and discuss possible treatment options in a single office visit,” she adds.

Vancouver Clinic in southern Washington has deployed the Aruba mobile network to help clinicians become more efficient and deliver higher quality care across seven regional locations. Its existing network no longer could support mobile requirements. “Our outdated infrastructure made it difficult to add modern healthcare services and deliver reliable connectivity for staff, nurses and doctors to access patient records and use medical devices,” says Eric Davis, IT infrastructure architect at the clinic.