A clinical monitoring system using hand held mobile technology has been introduced on the children’s ward at Conquest Hospital and the children’s unit at Eastbourne DGH.
The team on Kipling Ward with the VitalPAC system
The Trust is one of the first in the country to use the paediatric module of the VitalPAC system. The monitoring system is already fully operational on all the acute adult wards at both hospitals.
The system, called VitalPAC, monitors and analyses children’s vital signs and enables staff to automatically summon timely and appropriate help if a child deteriorates and removes the need for paper based monitoring charts.
Caroline Stephenson Practice Educator for Paediatrics said: “This is an exciting innovation which will benefit the children in our care.”
Alice Webster Director of Nursing said: “Implementing this clinical monitoring system has improved patient safety and outcome helping to identify deteriorating patients earlier, allowing for quicker clinical intervention.”
VitalPAC enables nurses to record seven routine observations, such as temperature, pulse and blood pressure, and removes the requirement for a paper chart. The system’s software generates an alert for nurses and doctors to view on a dashboard, allowing clinicians to have an overview of the ward’s sickest patients. It is hoped the system will also reduce length of stay by avoiding the complications that can arise in patients at risk of deterioration.