GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--For the second time, AvaSure has honored provider organizations that have used video patient monitoring to help achieve healthcare’s Quadruple Aim of population health management, patient and staff satisfaction, and lower spending.
The awards were handed out during the inaugural AvaSys Symposium in Grand Rapids, Mich., last week. The three-day symposium was attended by more than 250 healthcare executives and clinicians, who heard from leading national speakers and learned from fellow users of the AvaSys® TeleSitter® Solution, AvaSure’s signature product, which is setting a new standard of bedside care.
AvaSys is a remote patient observation and communications platform that enables a single caregiver to monitor as many as 15 patients at once from a central observation station. These trained technicians can vocally intervene with patients – while simultaneously summoning a nurse – long enough to avert harm. AvaSys provides both permanent in-room and mobile audio-visual observation units to many of the nation’s most prestigious and safety-conscious institutions.
“The AvaPrize winners have gone beyond simply implementing AvaSys; they are taking the initiative to make this solution their own,” said Brad Playford, AvaSure’s founder and CEO. “We hope these awards will spur other organizations to adopt some of the practices used by our awardees.”
The AvaPrize recipients are:
- Spaulding Hospital for Continuing Medical Care, in Cambridge, Mass., a long-term acute care facility near Boston, which earned the Safety Net Award for the most complete AvaSys program. “Spaulding has a high-acuity census, including brain injury, stroke, oncology and transplant patients, and AvaSys has played a key role in keeping those patients and others safe over long stretches of time,” said Christopher De Young, AvaSure’s Vice President of Business Development, who emceed the awards presentation. Over one seven-month period, Spaulding saved well over $300,000 on the costs of sitters – nursing assistants detailed to sit with individual patients.
- Ochsner Health System in Louisiana, which won the Hub and Spoke Award for the most efficient use of AvaSys by multi-site organizations using a single remote central observation center. AvaSys has been implemented in eight of Ochsner’s owned facilities, including its flagship in New Orleans and its Elmwood Health Center, which houses inpatient rehab and houses the central monitoring station. Ochsner has seen a significant reduction in falls, as well as sitter cost reductions, as a result of AvaSys. And it published a feature article on the implementation of AvaSys last year in the Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing.
- Kaiser Permanente Downey (Calif.) Medical Center, which won the Path to Zero Award for the most impressive falls reduction program centered on video monitoring. Downey recently became the No. 1 hospital in Kaiser’s giant Southern California region for advancements in fall reduction/prevention. Pre-AvaSys, it was near the bottom of the list. Downey reported recently at Kaiser’s Southern California Regional nurse executives meeting that it had a sustained fall reduction of 41% hospital wide for seven months in a row, and has not had a single fall by a patient on AvaSys monitoring.
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A new honor this year is the Monitor Tech of the Year Award, which
celebrates the remote patient observer who has gone above and beyond
the job description to help patients and fellow staff. The winner is
Hadi Al-Juboori of University Health System in San Antonio. Al-Juboori
is originally from Iraq, where he was a surgeon. He is now a medical
technician who sought out a position as a monitor tech.
Joyce Ornelas, nursing director at the system, said Al-Juboori’s medical training gave him the standing needed to work with the staff. “Hadi’s enthusiasm about AvaSys has proved contagious, increasing utilization of the program at UHS,” she said. “He has spent time with families, explaining the camera to them. He has also improved the signage on the cameras for staff and family benefit. And he has been a tireless advocate for the monitoring team, ensuring they have breaks and taking over as runners to maintain and transport the mobile units.”
