Sanford Health
Sanford Health’s Unique Electronic Rounding Dashboard Leverages Sonitor Sense™ RTLS to Improve Patient Care.
Evidence suggests that structured nursing rounds are associated with positive outcomes1,2. Patients feel safe and confident about their care, there is a reduction in patients’ use of call bells and adverse events such as falls, medication errors and patient deterioration are reduced. In addition, routine rounding can eliminate alarm fatigue as patients are confident that they can expect nurses on a scheduled basis and are less likely to push their call button if their need is not urgent. Sanford Health, a non-profit, integrated health care delivery system facility with multiple locations throughout the Dakotas and Minnesota, recognized the value of rounding, but needed to find a way to reduce the manual burden on caregivers to execute rounding and to provide visual cues to staff to better facilitate their rounding efforts.
Sanford Health is a long-standing customer of Sonitor’s unique, ultrasound-based Sense RTLS (Real-Time Location System) with implementations at many of its facilities and campuses. Heather Perez, MSN, RN-BC, a nursing practice specialist at Sanford Health, recognized the need to help automate this critical workflow at the Sanford Innovation Unit and saw an opportunity to leverage their existing Sonitor Sense deployment. The Sanford Innovation Unit is an inpatient unit on the eighth floor of Sanford Medical Center Fargo that is designed to test ideas before implementing them at Sanford Health’s 45 other hospitals. Perez was looking for ways to use technology to improve patient care and reduce administrative and alarm fatigue burden on nurses. As a result, she developed a unique electronic rounding dashboard that is integrated with Sonitor Sense RTLS. This visual tracking system automatically updates rounding events and eliminates the need for audible alerts. Using the Sanford designed dashboard and Sonitor Sense RTLS real-time data as a visual dashboard at the nursing station, staff can readily be aware of which patients need to be rounded on in real-time.
At Sanford’s Innovation Unit, Sonitor Sense ultrasound location transmitters are installed throughout the corridors and in patient rooms. Patients and staff wear Sonitor location badges (SmartTag Mini™ and SmartBadges™) and the facility’s mobile medical equipment is tagged with SmartTags. This ensures that the location and activity of patients, staff and assets can always be known in real-time. In addition, stationary tags are affixed near the head of the bed in the patient’s room.
As a result of routine and consistent rounds, patients have more confidence that a nurse will stop by on a regular basis and are less apt to push the call button if their need is not urgent. This reduces alarm fatigue nurses can feel over time and is one of the problems Perez sought to solve. With their Sonitor Sense RTLS-enabled solution, the nurse will push the button on the stationary tag after they perform their intentional care round. Since all staff members at the Sanford Innovation Unit wear Sonitor Sense RTLS badges, the electronic rounding system automatically knows which specific nurse is in the room in real-time and displays it on a large video monitor in the nursing station.
“We actually have seen an improvement in the patient satisfaction with this, knowing that we’re there and that we’re going to be back when we say we’re going to be back gives patients peace of mind and a sense of security.”
— Heather Perez, MSN, RN-BC, Sanford Health
With Sanford’s electronic rounding dashboard, when a care round is not due, that patient room shows up as green. The room appears yellow on the dashboard 15 minutes prior to when the next round is due, and it appears red once a round is due. The timing for rounds changes between day and night shifts, per Sanford’s policy. Since their dashboard is RTLS-enabled, it gives an accurate display of who needs to be rounded on. If the nurse assigned to that patient is busy, other nurses and team members who are free can perform the round, ensuring on-time quality care.
The RTLS data also offers the opportunity to educate family members about the care the nurse is providing. Families can take comfort knowing their loved ones are being cared for with real time data. With the accuracy and reliability of Sonitor Sense RTLS, the electronic dashboard system can easily monitor, and track nurse rounding based on staff and patient location data. This data ultimately lets Sanford improve patient care and satisfaction while reducing some of the burden on nurses.
“We’ve seen a 50% drop in patient falls. Patient satisfaction is up. We also see zero pressure injuries (from patients confined to a bed). Staff communication has improved, as has knowledge of what an intentional care round is when we push the button.”
— Heather Perez, MSN, RN-BC, Sanford Health
References
Hutchings M (2012) Caring around the clock: Rounding in practice. Nurs Times 108: 12-14.
Meade CM, Bursell AL, Ketelsen L (2006) Effects of nursing rounds: On patients’ call light use, satisfaction, and safety. Am J Nurs 106: 58-70.