# data[].attributes.body
1.  As with any monitoring system, there are false alarms.

2.  In feasibility studies, nurses have shown resistance to the introduction of this system because of the education required to properly use it.

# data[].attributes.body
1. The continuous monitoring provided by this system is helpful in notifying nurses of changes in a patient’s vital signs. This helps a nurse pick up more quickly on potential problems which may be leading to a patient’s clinical deterioration. With this knowledge, nurses can intervene more quickly.

2.  It lets the nurse know if the patient is attempting to leave the bed before he actually does. As a result of this capability, patient falls can be reduced or prevented.

3. The number of alarms associated with this system are low compared to those used in telemetry.

4. Because the system has no direct contact with the patient, it does not contribute to the patient agitation that may develop with attached leads.

# data[].attributes.body
The lead author, Eyal Zimlichman MD is a doctor of internal medicine and was a research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard Medical School affiliated Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice in Boston, Massachusetts at the time of his research with EarlySense. He recently joined the senior executive team at Sheba Medical Center as their Chief Quality Officer.

Credibility:   He is an expert in health care quality, with a particular interest in patient safety and health technology.

Zimlichman, E., Szyper-Kravitz, M., Shinar, Z., Klap, T., Levkovich, S., Unterman, A., Rozenblum, R. Rothschild, J. Amital, H., Shoenfeld, Y. (2012). Early recognition of acutely deteriorating patients in non-intensive care units: assessment of an innovative monitoring technology. Journal of Hospital Medicine, 7(8), 628-33. doi:10.1002/jhm.1963

# data[].attributes.body
The workload of nurses on a medical surgical unit can be daunting. Patient techs may not be available or may have been pulled to other units. The continuous monitoring of the patient through the EarlySense system would alert a nurse to possible patient deterioration. With a heavy patient load, it would be possible to miss a gradual downward trending of vital signs; with this system it is possible to have an alert via the nurse’s pager that something is wrong. The system’s ability to notify the nurse if the patient is leaving the bed is also very useful. It also has fewer false alarms associated with it than a telemetry system.

On a personal note, the fact that this system is hidden from the patient’s view (under the mattress) and involves no leads is particularly appealing for use in the elderly population. My father has Alzheimer’s and becomes hostile when monitoring devices are applied and when blinking lights are visible. This system seems essential to ensure patient safety in a hospital or extended care setting.

# data[].attributes.body
The EarlySense Vitals Surveillance system is a sensor that is placed under a patient’s mattress and provides continuous measurements of the patient’s heart rate, respiration rate and bed motion. This system is designed for low acuity patients and operates with no telemetry leads on the patient’s body.  It uses a piezoelectric sensor and provides an update of the vital signs every 0.5 seconds. This information is relayed to a monitor at the nurses’ station or directly to the nurse’s paging device or phone. If any of the preset parameters is exceeded, an alert can be sent directly to the nurse. It also alerts nurses of a patient attempting to leave the bed.  Studies have shown that this system reduces falls and is able to improve the nurse’s ability to pick up a deteriorating cardiac situation and take rapid action. Older methods of monitoring vital signs are more time intensive, do not provide continuous data, and do not alert the nurse to possible downtrends so that remedial action can be taken.
http://www.earlysense.com/