GE Healthcare's Smart Patient Room pilot at Bassett Medical Center has been approved by the site’s Institutional Review Board to begin data collection. The technology, installed as part of GE’s healthymagination initiative, aims to help providers reduce patient safety risks and improve outcomes.
"GE is developing a unique solution for the healthcare industry that helps hospitals and staff identify and mitigate patient safety risks while offering meaningful solutions to improve patient outcomes," said Jan De Witte, president and CEO of GE Healthcare Performance Solutions. "GE’s real-time, adaptable solution will provide actionable data to healthcare providers regarding patient safety and potential medical errors, which in turn will affect the necessary behavioral changes to avoid preventable errors."
With the integration of this new technology into existing hospital rooms, the Smart Patient Room solution is designed to provide clinicians with real-time monitoring for patient risk and the ability to intervene via gentle notification. The system is designed to track protocol adherence such as proper hand hygiene compliance before and after interacting with a patient, periodic clinical rounding, and monitor for increased risk of patient fall.
"Patient safety is a concern for hospitals across the U.S., as more patients enter the health system," said William Streck, MD, president and CEO of Bassett Medical Center, a 180-bed, acute care inpatient teaching facility in Cooperstown, NY. "At Bassett we are very excited to be working alongside GE Healthcare and GE Global Research to design and pilot what is meant to be an industry solution for hospitals to identify and mitigate patient safety risks and improve patient outcomes."
The Smart Patient Room solution is being developed at GE’s Global Research Center in Niskayuna, N.Y. and piloted at Bassett. The technology is intended as a flexible solutions platform designed to meet the needs of the specific hospital system.
According to the Institute of Medicine, medical error is the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for as many as 100,000 preventable deaths per year. Falls alone cost the U.S. healthcare system $1 billion annually, according to the American Hospital Association.
The Smart Patient Room can collect real-time information from the system to generate actionable data to manage clinical workflow, and uncover opportunities for influencing process and behavioral changes to create a safer patient environment.
"The partnership between GE Healthcare and GE’s Global Research Center provides a unique advantage to develop innovative technologies and solutions that will address the most pressing issues facing healthcare today," said Mike Harsh, vice president and chief technology officer of GE Healthcare. "The Smart Patient Room is a perfect, tangible example of how GE is leveraging that combined research and business expertise to develop some of the most dynamic solutions in healthcare."
