Delivering high-quality patient care within a hospital or health system undoubtedly requires a lot of planning, intelligence, hard work, and other resources. Healthcare staff often must use their department-specific knowledge while collaborating with colleagues to create and execute a multidisciplinary care plan, which usually includes time-sensitive care delivery with vital technological resources. But in busier-than-ever facilities, and now with a broader range of healthcare technology devices available than ever before, what’s the best way to help ensure timely care with these devices occurs?
The answer is Primex OneVue Sync™ and CareFlow™ Cloud Asset Tracking from Midmark RTLS. This combination of facilitywide synchronized clocks and real-time, cloud-based asset tracking can help healthcare staff stay on time and keep track of resourceful, necessary equipment.
Time as a Healthcare Resource
Healthcare staff and their patients are still feeling many aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, hospitals and healthcare facilities canceled or postponed most nonemergency procedures, and many individuals refrained from seeking preventive and regular care — opting to stay quarantined instead. These decisions have negatively impacted patient acuity in the U.S., measured by average length-of-stay. According to an August 2022 American Hospital Association report, ALOS in hospitals has increased 19.2% from 2019.
This increase in patient acuity — meaning sicker patients who require extended hospitalizations and more intensive treatment plans — is exacerbated by the current severe nursing shortage that’s expected to continue without concerted action. Factors such as high workloads, burnout, and retirements have caused a 3.3% overall decrease in the U.S. nursing workforce since 2021. Despite technology aimed to offset personnel shortages and put more focus on patient care, face-to-face time between patients and staff is at risk of dwindling.
To help staff better plan their schedules and ensure enough time for face-to-face patient care, synchronized Primex analog and digital clocks could be a useful tool. When all clocks within a facility display the same time, it helps eliminate time discrepancies and can help keep staff running on time according to their schedule. It can also help improve medication administration, patient satisfaction, and laboratory sample turnaround times — all crucial within a healthcare facility.
And just as time is an essential resource for healthcare staff and patient outcomes, so is the myriad of healthcare devices and technology utilized to help treat patients.
Healthcare Technology Resources and Asset Tracking
No matter how many patients a nurse — anywhere from one to two in surgical or intensive care units to six to eight in standard inpatient wards — or doctor has at any given time, keeping track of essential tools can be paramount to providing effective patient care. One way to help ensure proper resource utilization is through real-time asset tracking through Midmark RTLS.
Midmark RTLS CareFlow Cloud Asset Tracking is a cloud-based technology that provides staff with the real-time location of equipment on their computers or tablets. When a Bluetooth® Low Energy asset tag is attached to a piece of equipment, the solution relays its location — no matter the department, floor, or facility — to help eliminate time spent looking for it. In turn, knowing the location of necessary assets frees up more time for patient care, can eliminate inventory depletion, and — of course — optimize resource utilization.
The Midmark CareFlow Cloud Platform is flexible and scalable with options to add additional solutions, such as Staff Duress, that increase the total system value.
Primex and Midmark RTLS Partnership
To further boost resource utilization at your facility, consider adding technology to automate administrative tasks that take away from patient care delivery time. The Primex OneVue Sense® automated monitoring solution can automate refrigeration temperature logging and prepare documents for audits, helping to comply with rules and regulations.
The suite of OneVue Sense sensors, which include temperature sensors to protect valuable assets and medications and indoor air quality monitors to safeguard patient or other sensitive environments, aim to optimize any size healthcare facility. For added convenience, the status and readings of Primex OneVue Sense sensors are visible within the Midmark RTLS Enterprise View® web-based software platform.
Having one place to check both precise, real-time locations of equipment and accurate environmental readings gives healthcare staff one less step that they need to perform in their everyday tasks. Within a busy healthcare facility, every step matters. And when you include Primex OneVue Sync clocks into this workspace with OneVue Sense and Midmark RTLS, it further optimizes resource utilization by providing synchronous time for all.
If you want to improve your hospital or healthcare facility’s resource utilization, time management, and overall functionality, contact us today to get started.