Nursing will always be a hands-on affair. That’s why Butler Memorial Hospital has found a way to keep telephones out of nurses’ hands while connecting them to better patient care and better record-keeping.
Pittsburgh’s Bright Innovation helped Vocollect develop and create a wireless hands-free and eyes-free system for IV nurses. The new system recently won a national Nursing Information Technology Innovation Award.
Amar Kapadia, director of new ventures for Vocollect, says the company’s project at Butler Memorial Hospital is a first in a hospital setting.
“The project includes a team of 18 nurses across shifts,” he explains. “It helps them be more productive. They can do all the documentation, very quickly, as soon as they are leaving the room, while walking down hall. They don’t even have wash their hands” to enter patient data.
The information is digitally recorded be part of patients’ treatment records. “Everything we do is converted into discrete text. You can store it, and manipulate it,” says Kapadia. “But the nurses never say the patient’s name aloud,” adhering to HIPPA privacy regulations.
Source: Amar Kapadia
Writer: Chris O’Toole