Protecting patients with live video monitoring and analytics

Hospitals and other healthcare facilities had to adapt quickly to respond to the highly contagious COVID-19. One area of focus was mitigating transmission within their environments. In addition to using personal protective equipment (PPE), many facilities also worked to dramatically reduce the number of people allowed in various locations within facilities. While this helped, it meant that patients were often left alone in their rooms. To address this, healthcare facilities started using video cameras to monitor and communicate with patients. 

In the months since the start of the global pandemic, hospitals have started thinking about how they might use what they have learned to both improve the care they provide and increase their ROI.  Some have been asking how they might use the video cameras in patient rooms in other ways.

Cameras, as part of a physical security system, have been in hospitals for many years. After all, safeguarding pharmaceuticals and equipment as well as protecting patients and staff are extremely important. But now that they have had success using cameras to improve patient care in response to COVID-19, healthcare facilities are looking to see if these same cameras might also support the clinical side of operations. 

To protect patient privacy and comply with HIPAA regulations, it is highly recommended that observation patient room cameras are not recorded either on-board the camera or on a remote server.  A system based on the Wisenet WAVE video management system (VMS) from Hanwha Techwin is a good option because it can easily be deployed as a standalone clinical video option that is non-recording. 

Selecting the right VMS can also improve a healthcare facility’s ROI. Wisenet WAVE, for example, provides hospitals with fully featured enterprise video monitoring without the cost of licenses. This is because, if they are not recording, the hospital does not need to purchase licenses for their cameras. Wisenet WAVE can also transition easily if the hospital decides to use it for security applications as well.  

Hospitals are placing cameras in patient rooms to prevent falls, which is a frequent occurrence since sometimes patients do not fully understand the impact of their illness. In other cases, patients recovering from surgery can feel more stable than they actually are. For example, a patient can have surgery and then, two days later, try to move only to fall out of bed and break an elbow. The additional medication, surgery, and stay in recovery resulting from the fall are all paid for by the hospital—not the patient’s insurance company.  

The costs associated with a patient fall can be anywhere from 15 to 30 thousand dollars. When you consider that an average 500-bed hospital can see as many as 50 falls a month, it can add up to tens of millions of dollars in added expenses each year. Fortunately, cameras in patient rooms can help monitor and supervise patients against falls or harm while in the care of the hospital.

Typically, a healthcare facility will deploy a video monitoring system with a camera in specific patient rooms such as the NICU, PICU, ICU and recovery rooms. More hospitals are now looking to deploy cameras in every patient room for remote observation and more efficient use of staff. This enables someone — usually a nurse — to watch between 10 and 12 patient video feeds from one monitor at the same time. The nurse looks for specific behaviors or indicators that a patient might be at risk for falling. For example, if an eighty-year-old prone patient is suddenly sitting up, it could indicate that they are about to attempt getting out of bed. When the observation nurse identifies the potential risk, they call the nurse runner on the floor and direct them to the patient’s room. 

Facilities with more advanced video monitoring systems, like the one from Hanwha Techwin, can take advantage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) computer vision analytics to achieve even greater ROI.  In this case, the analytics are trained to recognize potential fall behaviors and patient poses, essentially transforming video cameras into intelligent sensors. When a behavior or pose, like a torso being upright in bed, is detected, the system automatically sends a pre-fall alarm to alert staff. In this case, instead of sitting in front of a monitor, nursing staff can provide the level of care they’ve been trained for. It also gives staff time to intervene and prevent a fall before it happens. 

It is becoming increasingly clear that non-recording cameras in patient rooms, as part of a video monitoring system, can be effective in preventing falls. They allow nursing staff to focus on caring for their patients and prevent patients from getting injured. They can also help healthcare facilities save money and improve their ROI.  By taking the lessons learned from the pandemic and applying them to the clinical side of healthcare, facilities are streamlining operations as they improve their quality of care.

Electronic medical record platforms are now integrating Hanwha Techwin cameras directly into their systems for multiple clinical applications. From fall reduction monitoring to making virtual rounds with video and tele-ICU applications, an EMR with video integration can be used as an intelligent tool to create better patient outcomes.  

Using discreet non-recording monitoring solutions equipped with intelligent video analytics removes the need for in-person caretakers to be present with every patient.