COLUMN | By Mathews Varughis, Sales Manager for New Zealand at Paessler
The rationale behind maximising medical equipment performance in Aotearoa’s aged care facilities is critical and will achieve several key objectives. These include improved quality of care, better communication and improved support for patient and workforce needs.
When this medical equipment operates without monitoring and digitisation, aged care facilities can't operate at their full potential and resolving any issues can demand extra staff resources, which are scarce due to issues with pay parity with other health sectors.
Aged care nurses are being paid up to NZ$20,000 less than nurses who Te Whatu Ora employs in public hospitals, and that is the leading cause of nurse shortages and bed closures in aged care facilities. More than 1,200 aged care beds have closed in the last year due to this severe shortage of registered nurses.
Why the aged care sector needs device monitoring.
The devices propelling the aged care sector are transformative to the quality of care staff can offer residents. For example, the nurse call button, which now seems so obvious it blends into the background, once saved nurses hours a day spent doing regular patient visits. However, these devices are rarely digitalised or connected to the network in an aged care setting, so they cannot be monitored to ensure they are working correctly.
Digitisation involves the integration of these critical devices into a centralised monitoring system, enabling connectivity that streamlines the movement and access of information while monitoring the condition of the equipment.
Before an aged care facility digitises, the essential devices that staff rely on to offer quality patient care cannot always be relied upon. Considering patients' well-being and health depend upon these devices to differing degrees, the risk of them becoming faulty, malfunctioning or breaking during their use creates omnipresent concern.
Integrating medical devices into the Internet of Things (IoT) can automatically manage their functionality and operating status. More than this, it can transfer sensor information to electronic health records, creating a network of information accessible to healthcare workers 24/7.
The pandemic triggered a much-needed focus on digitising health care, but now that its immediate effects are receding, integrating medical devices remains just as crucial.
Why aged care facilities should digitise.
Frontline connectivity enhances resource efficiency. Frontline workers and clinicians have had to adapt to remote and virtual working methods. Many practices adopted over the first two years of the pandemic are now integrated into regular processes because of their effectiveness. It's easy to understand why.
Utilising electronic health records (EHR), video-enabled technology, and secure remote connectivity enables frontline workers to be better equipped to coordinate patient care across departments. However, this virtual way of working comes with the risk of information gaps and privacy concerns without connectivity to the IoT.
The IoT brings together staff, patients, data, processes and equipment for optimised workflows. Integrating clinician and frontline devices to the IoT allows teams to continue to work remotely, synchronises their devices and provides immediate access to updated patient profiles. It also adds efficiencies like care prompts and reminders, accelerates treatment, minimises delays and maximises time for clinicians, providing a much more cohesive patient and staff experience.
Point of Care solutions needs monitoring to harness benefits.
As healthcare data analytics and artificial intelligence advance to support aged care patients, monitoring Point of Care (POC) solutions is not a luxury but a necessity. Mobile devices and POC devices gather patient information automatically. This improves accuracy and efficiency, enabling communication between healthcare workers and increasing the speed and quality of care. If they're not connected and monitored through an overarching IoT system, the inefficiencies and inaccuracies of the system mean the rapid turnaround time that POC offers can't be fully achieved.
Equipment involved in data-heavy healthcare.
Advanced medical equipment, such as devices used in radiology, requires unique scanning protocols performed regularly. Due to the advances in imaging technology, the volume of exam data has multiplied too. Radiology departments need more efficient processing, which AI-based and centralised IT monitoring can deliver. Digitisation can optimise imaging workflows, exam setup, protocol management and patient positioning.
Greater homecare capabilities and support.
Wearable devices support homecare and aged care facilities by tracking vital patient information and automatically updating the EHR. It allows highly efficient recording and a more mobile workforce, where resources are spread to optimise performance. Diagnostics and wearable devices demand staff to check the devices regularly, and they can only totally rely on them if they're monitored and connected to a network. Residents and patients have a severe health risk when no one is informed that wearable devices have stopped working.
In the homecare portion of the aged care sector, wearable devices are increasingly sophisticated. If patients step out of regular timeframes in their routine, they can notify staff of a possible mishap. These intelligent systems have powerful resource benefits, but again, they're only as beneficial as they are reliable, and integration into IT monitoring can remove any doubt regarding reliable usage.
The takeout.
From patients, nurses and clinicians, the data involved in aged care and equipment used, digitisation positively impacts every cog in the aged care sector. In such a tightly resourced industry, centralised IT monitoring is a multifaceted solution that will unburden staff and realise the potential of medical equipment already in place.
