Patient care beyond vital signs

Often the first indication of abnormal physiological body changes,¹ accurate vital signs are essential to improving patient outcomes. The more accurate, detailed and efficient the bedside observations, the lower the risk of avoidable harm later in the patient care journey.

However, with intense workloads and a wide range of observation criteria that differ between patient groups, departments, spot checks or admissions, workflows need to be supported by technology that’s fast, customisable and comprehensive. Vital signs machines must therefore incorporate human factors into their design, to allow caregivers to maximise the efficacy of their work

The new Mindray VS9 vital signs workstation unlocks the full potential of bedside observations to improve patient outcomes, offering advanced workflow customisation options, fully-compliant National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) software and comprehensive clinical parameters.

Customising your workflow

To handle the diverse range of patients and varied workflows experienced by caregivers, the VS9 offers up to 10 different customisable workflow profiles which can be configured to the department’s clinical requirements.

This level of customisation not only improves individual levels of patient care, providing a more relevant picture of patient health, but also allows comprehensive documentation at the bedside, shortening workflows and eliminating the need to enter patient observations into separate systems.

By streamlining workflows, customisable profiles give caregivers more time to physically examine their patients and complete more comprehensive assessments usually recorded as manual observations. The VS9 satisfies this need for human and electronic observations, allowing caregivers to input up to 30 manual observations per patient, such as fluid balance or FiO2, to efficiently capture the most valuable and relevant patient data.

Such a thorough and expansive range of parameters and profiles would not be possible without the device’s vivid and intuitive 10” touchscreen design, delivering more information on one screen for a greater insight into patient health.

Scoring NEWS2 with confidence

Not only does the VS9 enable faster, more complete methods of patient observation; its integrated NEWS2 scoring system presents a clear picture of patient health with customisable escalation details to ensure a timely response to patient deterioration.

Fully compliant with NEWS standards, the automatic scoring system removes the need for manual calculation, minimising transcription errors and improving patient safety in the process. 

Extensive bedside parameters

In order to better detect patient deterioration and ensure greater compliance with healthcare directives, the workstation’s range of monitoring parameters go further than ever to ensure patient safety and clinical efficiency.

The VS9’s new orthostatic blood pressure (BP) feature targets a key, but often overlooked, area of patient safety: falls.

Falls in hospitals are the most commonly reported patient safety incident with more than 240,000 reported in acute hospitals and mental health trusts in England and Wales^.2 This critical area of patient safety not only severely impacts patient safety and confidence, but it also costs the NHS on average £2,600 per fall, with the figure rising dramatically for older patients experiencing more severe impacts.³

To help address one of the major fall risks, the National Audit of Inpatient Falls (NAIF) recommends that all patients aged over 65 years should have a lying and standing BP taken as soon as practicable.⁴ These measurements are used to look for signs of orthostatic hypotension (OH), which is measured by a drop in orthostatic BP when standing.⁵

The VS9 provides a clear and easy-to-understand assessment of orthostatic BP, enabling caregivers to record sitting and standing measurements, before displaying a clear summary screen with a simple positive/negative result indicator. With this measurement caregivers can easily spot and identify any risk of OH with minimal training

The NAIF study also found that only 16% of patients had a lying and standing BP recorded by their third hospital day.⁶ The report stated: “The measurement of lying and standing blood pressure usually takes only 5-10 minutes, but this was recorded for only 16% of patients. Some hospitals managed to record this in most appropriate patients. However, this is clearly an area where many hospitals can improve.”⁷

The new VS9 workstation’s orthostatic BP feature provides a simple tool to improve compliance in this key area, minimising risk to patients in the process.

Preventing falls not only benefits patients; it can also have a substantial effect on staff and hospital resources by reducing preventable admissions to the ICU, limiting lengthy rehabilitation procedures, and lowering the risk of litigation. There is also a wider positive impact on patient and community confidence.

While ensuring a more complete picture of patient health can be captured at the bedside, the VS9’s monitoring systems have been specially designed to boost clinical efficiency and maximise patient comfort, with algorithms unique to the VS9. The TrueBP™ algorithm takes a rapid and accurate blood pressure in 15 seconds, and innovative TrueResp™ software automatically determines respiration rate from the Mindray SpO2 finger sensor

To further support faster workflows, the VS9 incorporates a customisable pain scale chart, allowing caregivers to intuitively record this valuable observation at the bedside. Pain charts represent a simple and clear way to visualise a patient’s status or reactions to treatment over time.  

Connectivity is key

However, faster workflows are only part of the solution provided by the VS9. The VS9’s connectivity options support two longrunning NHS objectives: digitisation and interoperability. 

Thanks to vendor-neutral compatibility, the VS9 can connect seamlessly to existing EPR systems, allowing caregivers to quickly and accurately update patient data. Such scalable and straightforward integration reduces implementation timescales and helps hospitals digitise patient records in line with the current 2024 paperless goal.⁸

Hospitals can achieve their interoperability targets with the VS9 as part of a connected workflow. For truly connected healthcare that improves patient safety and clinical decision making, caregivers can monitor, interact with and view the VS9’s data remotely through the BeneVision Central Station. 

This process reduces the reliance on PCs and tablets, lowering the risk of delays or inaccuracies when transcribing data manually into different systems

As part of this connected workflow, caregivers not only see a complete picture of health for multiple patients; they can also receive EWS reminders to ensure the timely detection of patient deterioration. With Mindray’s Mobile Viewer technology, these reminders and other alarms can be sent directly to mobile devices for even faster reactions to adverse events. 

Maintenance and operability

With such a wealth of connectivity options, the VS9 represents a comprehensive vital signs system that has been designed with longevity in mind. Validated with all leading UK cleaning agents, the VS9 is also wellsuited to the current climate of heightened sterilisation protocols. The flat touchscreen design with disinfectant-resistant materials aids faster wipe downs with less degradation over time, ultimately ensuring less money and time is spent on maintenance throughout the product’s lifespan.

To further ensure the cost of investment is protected, Mindray offers M-IoT Device Manager software, for detailed system diagnostics on all VS9 devices across the hospital. This platform supports faster device location, smoother software updates and helps limit downtime for caregivers

Conclusion

The fast, comprehensive and accurate vital signs measurements made possible by the VS9 not only save time and improve compliance, but ultimately help maximise the efficacy of patient observations. This frees up staff resources throughout the patient journey, reclaiming time and money spent supporting long and inefficient workflows.

Providing greater speed, scope and precision when identifying and responding to patient deterioration, the VS9 represents the future of vital signs monitoring

Mindray UK Limited
Mindray House,
Kingfisher Way,
Hinchingbrooke Business Park,
Huntingdon,
Cambs,
PE29 6FN

Tel: 01480 416840
Fax: 01480 436588
Web: www.mindrayuk.com

References

1 Evans D, Hodgkinson B, Berry J. Vital signs in hospital patients: a systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Studies 2001; 38: 643–650. 2 NHS Improvement. The incidence and costs of inpatient falls in hospitals. 2017. https:// improvement.nhs.uk/resources/incidence-andcosts-inpatient-falls-hospitals/ (cited January 2021) 3 NHS Improvement. The incidence and costs of inpatient falls in hospitals. 4 NHS Improvement. The incidence and costs of inpatient falls in hospitals. 5 Hartog LC, Schrijnders D, Landman GWD, et al. Is orthostatic hypotension related to falling? A metaanalysis of individual patient data of prospective observational studies. Age Ageing 2017; 46 (4): 568-575. 6 Royal College of Physicians. National audit of inpatient falls Audit report. 2015. https://www. rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/naif-auditreport-2015 (cited January 2021) 7 Royal College of Physicians. National audit of inpatient falls Audit report 2015. 8 NHS. The NHS long term plan. 2019. https:// www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/ (cited January 2021)

 

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