Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The Wave of the Future in Monitoring Patients - Decreasing Liability and Enhancing Patient Safety

We must all appreciate the enormous tasks faced by those in the health care industry in relation to caring for those patients with Alzheimer's, Autism or other similar conditions. One of the greatest issues faced today is safety. Many facilities such as assisted living residences, hospitals, home health companies and nursing homes can now use location based personal trackers to help in maintaining the well being of their clients. The risk of wandering is one of the greatest liabilities in caring for those who have Alzheimer's, autism and other such disabilities. The insurance costs alone for the liability that each institution faces has skyrocketed based on exponentially new cases diagnosed every year.

In the past, most hospital facilities and assisted living environments have used 'bed checks'- a sensor that alarms when a patient leaves their bed, which of course is of some value and was the only sentinel available. One of the critical issues that the health care industry faces is the ability to track clients when they go missing. The way the system operates today is that the bed check will send out an alarm to the central monitoring stations but it is too late since the patient has already left their bed. The underlying situation is there is no way to track the patient once they have left the designated area. With location based personal trackers, caregivers will be more adept in locating these individuals.

Just as facilities currently use telemetry to monitor cardiac events of multiple patients via computer they can now also monitor multiple at risk patients locations using personal tracking devices. This ability greatly reduces the need for one to one nursing care in these incidents as nurses are frequently paid to sit and watch a confused patient just to make sure they will not wander off.

The location based trackers are not just for those with Alzheimer's, dementia, or autism. As many people in the patient population are also at risk for becoming confused and could potentially wander, such as those with hypoxia or under the influence of certain medications. Even a urinary tract infection can cause confusion in an elderly person. By using this technology, healthcare facilities will be able to better utilize staff, decrease liability and most importantly, help preserve the safety of its clients.

Today both private and public facilities can use the same technology being utilized by National Security, Homeland Security and even your own local law enforcement agencies. One of the greatest benefits to utilizing location based service devices for the healthcare industry is providing an added degree of personal security which seems to become more relevant each day as the population of those with cognitive disorders steadily increases. By embracing this technology hospitals, assisted living facilities and nursing homes can greatly reduce their liability while at the same time enhance patient safety. This would also be a great marketing point as these facilities can advertise that they offer this superior added protection. All these products are available at LifePROTEKT.








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Carolyn Mullins

Carolyn Mullins
lifeprotekt.com lifeprotekt.com/

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