Technology
vital signs monitoring could help to improve the hospital’s patient care and keep its staff safe. Broadmoor’s interest centred on night-time safety observations and vital signs checks. At night, staff must contend with looking through a small window into a dark room to check on their patients. Often, staff have little choice but to interrupt sleep to check that a patient is safe, which can feel intrusive, and may set them back in their recovery. Manual checks to garner vital signs information are just as challenging. They can be disturbing and invasive for patients, impede rehabilitation, and at times place strain on relationships between patients and staff.
‘REIMAGINING’ PATIENT OBSERVATIONS Oxehealth and Broadmoor Hospital performed two field studies to validate the technology in real-world conditions. The second study in 2016 included eight staff and seven patient volunteers, monitored throughout the day and night for a total of 180 hours. Oxehealth’s software reported volunteers as safe with 99.8% accuracy, with an average length of periods in an ‘unknown or unsafe state’ of only 13 seconds.
One senior house officer summed up the
staff reaction to using Oxehealth’s technology, saying: “If implemented, it would mean patients would no longer need to be disturbed by overnight checks, and if any patient becomes physically unwell or in need of urgent medical assistance, this would immediately be picked up.” Feedback from patients included a strong sense that the technology would improve the quality of sleep, with one patient explaining ‘so that patients feel they are not being disturbed’. After two successful trials, the clinicians at Broadmoor Hospital hoped to retrofit Oxehealth technology onto an existing ward in late 2017, and have plans to use it in the new hospital further down the line. Broadmoor
Oxehealth and Broadmoor Hospital have already performed two field studies to validate the technology ‘in real-world conditions’.
Hospital’s aim? To use Oxehealth’s technology for non-invasive observations that disturb patients less and reassure staff as to their safety.
SECLUSION
In seclusion situations, staff at Broadmoor hope that Oxehealth technology will increase vital sign observations as part of the normal care routine. Enabling staff to take vital signs remotely without disturbing patients or entering the room will improve the ability to monitor a patient’s health and detect deterioration over time – a particular challenge post rapid- tranquilisation. Oxehealth’s most recent real-world study was a tendered technology proof of concept study with the Metropolitan Police Service. The study established a breathing and heart rate accuracy of 97% ± 2 br/min and 93% ± 3 bpm respectively. In short, Oxehealth’s software means that a digital camera can be
Oxehealth’s smart activity reports on elderly patients can provide the missing information needed for creating step-down care packages, including the evidence needed to achieve earlier discharge
about as accurate as a contact medical device without once touching the body. Oxehealth is currently certifying the remote vital signs probe functionality as a medical device.
EXTENDING THE UTILITY ACROSS THE NHS A number of progressive mental health Trusts are building on Broadmoor’s pioneering work with Oxehealth’s technology – deploying the technology as a way to improve patient safety and to lower costs. South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust has, for instance, recently deployed Oxehealth technology into ‘seclusion’ to support staff in keeping patients safe. Oxehealth technology detects when a room is occupied and sends a visual and audible alert if no human signals are detected – acting as a safety net on top of one-to-one observations. The aim? To reduce the risk of serious incidents and death. According to Public Health England data, falls cost the NHS over £2 billion every year.2 Coventry & Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust is working with Oxehealth to prevent residential dementia patients from falling – using Oxehealth software to detect when a frail, elderly person is getting out of bed and alert staff to assist. The aim? Intervening at the right time can reduce falls without increasing the burden on staff.
Pictured (left to right) receiving the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Colin Campbell Mitchell Award for 2017 at the RAE’s Research Forum on 4 September are: Oxehealth research engineers, Nic Dunkley and Simon Jones, and research lead, Oliver Gibson, with Fellow of the RAE, Professor Sir Jim Mcdonald, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde.
IMPROVING SLEEP QUALITY Dr Alvaro Berrera from Oxford Health, and Professor John Geddes from the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford University, world experts in sleep to improve mental health treatment, have, meanwhile, recently signed a partnership to explore how using Oxehealth technology could improve sleep quality in adult acute wards. The aim? – better sleep can, of course, significantly reduce length of stay.
THE NETWORK JANUARY 2018 17
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