Enhancing patient safety through a standardized model of physiologic monitoring

The use of physiologic monitoring (e.g., cardiac monitoring) as an important component in providing safe patient care has escalated over the past two decades. It enables the clinician to detect physiologic changes in the patient's condition before they become clinically significant, thus allowing anticipation and prevention of adverse events. Issues and concerns regarding physiologic monitoring were raised throughout the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) leading to the approval of a project to develop a policy and guidelines for its use: the focus being standardization of processes and patient safety improvements. This article describes the underlying issues, the execution and results of the project, and its impact on patient safety within LHSC.