Flexible monitoring in the management of patient care processes: a pilot study

This article describes a study conducted on the internal medicine, general surgical, and vascular wards of a large metropolitan hospital to assess the impact of a networked monitoring system and portable patient monitors. This pilot study was developed to address the need of hospital patients who require continuous noninvasive vital signs monitoring (including heart rate, noninvasive blood pressure, pulse oximetry, cardiac waveform monitoring) with the addition of surveillance from a cardiac intensive care area. Data were collected from 114 patients over a 3-month period to identify a patient group that could be managed appropriately under the new system and to determine the effect that flexible monitoring had on patient care management. Findings include identification of a specific patient group that can be managed successfully outside the cardiac intensive care area using this system. Other findings suggest a way to improve the management of patient monitoring in the general ward areas.