Shands Hospital at the University of Florida
Creates a Single Alerting Platform with SARA
Description
Shands at the University of Florida in Gainesville is a private, not-for-profit hospital that specializes in tertiary care for critically ill patients. UF/Shands is one of the most comprehensive hospitals and one of the leading referral medical centers in the Southeast. UF/Shands is the primary teaching hospital for the University of Florida College of Medicine. More than 500 physicians representing 110 medical specialties work with a team of healthcare professionals to provide quality care for patients. It continually receives recognition as one of the best hospitals in the nation by U.S. News and World Report because of its dedication to patient care, education and research.
Opportunity
In a continued effort to provide outstanding patient care, Larry Benton, UF/Shands Director of Communications, ensures the hospital is using best of breed systems to support day-to-day operations. The hospital was looking to consolidate multiple nurse call systems in the hopes of improving their caregivers’ response time to alarms.
UF/Shands turned to trusted partner VT Milcom, who specializes in providing its customers professional and technical Information Technology (IT) services and is a Certified SARA Reseller in the Southeast United States. VT Milcom was challenged with finding a solution that would allow UF/Shands to leverage their current investments, while at the same time creating a common platform for future growth.
Solution
Status Solutions worked in conjunction with VT Milcom to deliver an alert solution to UF/Shands. The Situational Awareness and Response Assistant (SARA) converts alarms into manageable alerts. “Based on an endorsement from VT Milcom, we chose the SARA solution because of its ability to improve our processes by creating a single alerting platform. Leveraging our current infrastructure made the overall solution very appealing,” states Larry Benton, Director of Communications at UF/Shands.
The input to the SARA system is the alarm data originating from multiple GE Telligence nurse call systems due to triggering events from the patients and the output is the corresponding alert notifications to the wireless handsets, specifically the NEC PSIII and the NEC MH-160 handsets.
The alerts will be processed based on the schedule and rules defined as part of SARA’s modes and actions module - part of the Situational Awareness software engine. For instance, if a patient in a particular room initiate’s the pull cord, the alarm will be notified to SARA through the nurse call interface. Then SARA, based on the appropriate action defined in the modes and actions for that particular patient identifier, will deliver the text message to the corresponding wireless handset of the concerned caregiver with the description of the event which includes the patient room number. Upon receiving the message, if the caregiver decides to talk-back live with the patient, by activating the relevant key strokes on the respective wireless handset, the call is connected to the patient in real time so that the caregiver is able to consult with the appropriate patient who triggered the event.
This seamless integration enables automated alert notification to the caregiver, nursing staff or support staff for corresponding alarm events originating from the legacy nurse call systems. Real-time notification improves response times of caregivers. Establishing a “talk-back” path further enables the caregiver to give patients a better level of care.
“The software architects at Status Solutions worked very closely with us to understand our unique environment and specific requirements. They worked well with the technicians from VT Milcom to ensure a successful installation and smooth transition,” comments Larry Benton.
The Network Operations Center (NOC), provided by Status Solutions, remotely monitors the SARA server 24 hours, 7 days a week. Remote system supervision also includes any associated interfaces such as the TAP interface with the nurse call systems. VT Milcom and/or UF/Shands will be proactively alerted if an issue is detected. The NOC also provides data redundancy -a daily back-up of the SARA server. In the event of a catastrophic system failure due to loss of power for example (caused by lightning etc.,) Status Solutions will be able to download the image files to the replacement server at the customer premise so that the SARA system can be restored to normalcy in a quick and efficient manner with the most current data.
The solution provided integrates to the existing GE nurse call systems and NEC wireless handsets to create a single alerting platform allowing for improved efficiency and increased response times.Partnership
SARA has given UF/Shands the ability to expand and update their in-place nurse call systems while at the same time leveraging their existing infrastructure. With a situational awareness solution in place, Shands at UF has the technology to continue to improve their processes well into the future.
The next step will be to enable the voice of SARA at the facility. SARA has a text-to-speech capability that increases awareness, mobility and safety by providing an automated means of communicating both emergency and non-emergency alerts, activities and events to patients and staff.
Status Solutions and VT Milcom will continue to work together to ensure that UF/Shands, a leading hospital, has the most up-to-date technology to enable them to provide the highest level of care possible to their patients.
