TECHNOLOGY
environment, this means that a patient, and the potential revenue that patient represents, will be redirected elsewhere.
Faster assessment of status However, with an electronic surveillance system it would be possible to undertake a quick assessment of the status of isolation patients which would reveal several instances where patients in semi-private rooms could have been cohorted, which could have eliminated the need to divert patients over a six- or seven-hour period. This oversight, due to inefficiency in process, communication or both, can lead to direct loss of revenue due to unnecessary patient diversion. In another typical scenario, four
patients on a hospital unit are placed on contact precautions for MRSA. The unit includes 20 semi-private rooms, where two patient beds exist in each. As each patient was placed in isolation, the second bed in each room became unavailable – essentially converting the semi-private rooms to private ones and eliminating the availability of four beds. In this instance, the source of revenue
that these beds could generate is cut off. More importantly, the ability to get patients into rooms efficiently is hampered by a lack of real-time information, which will, ultimately, effect
extended for one out of every 10 or even 20 patients can be substantial. Lack of real-time information can also
patient care and satisfaction. If communication gaps can be closed
in relation to patients’ isolation status and real-time information made available, staff would then be able to more quickly determine a cohorting option. In the above scenario, two females or two males with the same infection could be placed in the same room. Further, inefficient and untimely management of isolation patients, which often leads to delays in unit-to-unit transfers, can sometimes negatively impact the length of stay (LOS) of a patient by increasing it from minutes to several hours. Though this may seem to be an insignificant length of time, the cumulative effect when LOS is slightly
create a patient safety issue by minimising the ability of an infection preventionist to proactively identify at-risk patients, increasing the risk of exposure to others in the facility. When there is no method for red-flagging conditions on the fly that are likely to result in the need for isolation, it becomes difficult to effectively prevent cross-contamination and possible healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) in patients, as well as protect staff members, and visitors from potential exposure to unidentified sources of infection.
Moving to a proactive solution The solution to ineffective isolation management for many hospitals and health systems could be the deployment of automated electronic infection surveillance systems that can provide real- time updates of information needed to assist the decision-making process. When real-time infection-related patient data is available to those involved with patient bed flow, those responsible for patient throughput – infection preventionists, nursing supervisors and registration staff members – are more informed about the exact number, location, and type of
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MARCH 2012 THE CLINICAL SERVICES JOURNAL 55
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