EarlySense Implementation: A Breakthrough in Eldercare, A Boon to The Allure Group
April 16, 2018
Six months after becoming Brooklyn’s first network of skilled nursing facilities to introduce the contact-free patient-monitoring system EarlySense, The Allure Group announced that it is seeing exciting results, as has been the case when that technology has been implemented elsewhere.
EarlySense, introduced at The Allure Group’s Bedford Center in July of 2017, uses sensor and advanced algorithms to monitor and analyze cardiac, respiratory and motion parameters and assist clinicians in the early detection of patient deterioration. In other longer-established Early Sense partnerships, it has resulted in a 45-percent reduction in patient falls, a 60-percent reduction in pressure ulcer development (bedsores) and an 80-percent reduction in code blue events.
The Allure Group has, according to a news release, achieved similar success, as determined through case studies at the Bedford Center. Several of those case studies revealed that alerts helped detect such illnesses as a urinary-tract infection and aspiration pneumonia.
EarlySense’s exit alerts were also shown to help prevent high-risk patients from falling.
“Investment in EarlySense technology represents The Allure Group’s ongoing commitment to provide the highest quality of care … throughout our network,” said Melissa Powell, Chief Operating Officer of Allure.
“Through improved patient monitoring and data collection,” she continued, clinical staff are alerted “before serious problems occur and can respond to patients’ specific needs swiftly and effectively. This is another step forward in our evolution of advanced care.”
EarlySense was founded in 2004, and its technology was described by Forbes as a way to respond to the needs of non-critical (non-ICU) patients — to help stem the tide of what that media outlet described as alarm fatigue on the part of healthcare professionals, which results in them being far less likely to respond to the constant alerts sounded by conventional bedside equipment.
EarlySense makes use of a sensing plate placed under a patient’s mattress. According to the company’s website that sensor incorporates piezoelectric technology, which converts mechanical energy to electricity when crystals such as quartz are squeezed.
The sensor detects the patient’s heart and respiration rates, as well as movements. That data, along with patient trends over time, is then passed to a bedside monitor and a Central Display Station located at the nurses’ station, as well as medical professionals’ tablets and hand-held devices.
That information also becomes part of the patient’s electronic medical records.
The Allure Group’s Chief Medical Officer, Rekha Bhandari, said patient safety remains the foremost concern, and EarlySense helps achieve that goal.
“EarlySense alerts are customizable to individual patients,” she said, “allowing our medical staff to provide personalized care tailored to each resident’s needs. The technology has also been shown to cut down on false alarms, improving response times by enabling us to focus care where it’s most critically needed.”
Simply put, EarlySense is the latest piece of evidence that the Allure Group places patient care and safety at the forefront of its mission.
“We are very pleased,” EarlySense president Tim O’Malley said, “to be able to call The Allure Group a customer.”