Patient Wandering System Implemented at Laguna Honda Hospital
Posted by Brad Parkel on Tue, Jan 24, 2012 @ 09:46 AM
Laguna Honda Hospital uses a Singlewire/AeroScout solution to help re-direct wander-risk patients in their facilities to help keep them safe.
Dr. Charles Stinson from Laguna Honda Hospital talks about how they implemented a system to help manage wandering patients within their facilities by sending an overhead page in the individual’s primary language to redirect them back to safety.
To learn more about this innovative implementation of an overhead paging solution for healthcare communication, click on the link below to watch the short video.
Transcript
Laguna Honda Hospital is a very old facility in San Francisco,California. It was actually started in the 1850s or so in response to needs or rising in the Gold Rush days when I came there in 1996. The newest part of the building had been built in the 1950s, and it was quite old and out of compliance with current hospital code.
Staff were very concerned and wanting to make sure that we could give really good care, and this provided us a real opportunity to really begin to explore new approaches to care. We were very interested in being able to help manage wandering and elopement in a way that was humane, comfortable and not disruptive and so we were looking at the possibility of using RTLS system so in the new facility we have used both resident locator capabilities so we can track the location of residents who are at risk for wandering due to dementia, and we've also implemented staff duress.
One of the concerns that had was individuals who have cognitive impairment walking out of doors and getting into dangerous situations. So, what we wanted to do was have a multi stage the system of graduated alerts and interventions for that. So we have four different levels there. The stage one alert was particularly interesting to me.
It was really the notion that can we intervene in a way that does not put a burden on the staff that actually helps that individual. Learn about the environment in a way that's graceful and not disruptive and doesn't cause panic for that individual. So, the intention here was to have a voice re-direction in that individual's primary language.
So we work with AeroScout which paired with Singlewire Software to put their IP speakers above the door there. So if a resident is approaching that door, it triggers an alert. That says, stop go back or please step away from the door in the language of that particular individual so we have some benefits that we think.
Occurred from this. First of all, we think that this has been really helpful. The whole environment including the resident locator system. In particular. Using the comfort of the individuals there, which has resulted in a lower number oftransfers to acute psychiatric care. We also think that this has been very helpful in reducing the number of tail gating elopements.
Lastly, we think that it's also helped in the staff oversight of the units. We've got private space which are really highly beneficial for the individuals but makes oversight more difficult. So being able to use the locator system is very helpful to our nursing staff on that. We're looking to expand the AeroScout RTLS system, first of all by including coverage in our garden spaces.
We've got some wonderful grounds and we really do want our residents to get out and enjoy fresh air and get exercise outside and yet still be able to trigger alerts if someone goes out beyond the garden spaces into unsafe territories. We also would like to make use of analytics to examine how is an individual's status changing over time.
So for an example. An individual with a traumatic brain injury who is gradually improving in their cognition if this individual is approaching the door less and less and beginning to respond more and more to the voice intervention thenwe know that this person is getting better and that they may be able to return to their home for care.
