Hospitals are becoming safer and safer with each passing year. Why? Simple safety devices make hospitals safer every day, from improving safety standards in buildings and preventing infectious diseases to enhancing efficiency and standardizing practices across the board. This article will look at several simple but effective innovations in hospitals and why you should be looking forward to safer medical facilities.
1. Hospital Falls Prevention
Hospital buildings should adhere to building codes that require handrails in hallways and bathrooms and nonslip flooring. Staff members should train to keep their environments safe to prevent falls due to tripping, slip and fall accidents, or other possible causes. Adjustable patient beds with sensors that automatically raise or lower them may reduce the risk of falls when getting into or out of bed. The devices also have alarms that sound if someone tries to get out of bed without assistance.
The use of appropriate barriers can help prevent falls from happening altogether. For example, waist-high railings around a toilet help patients avoid slipping when standing up from sitting down; bars placed next to bathtubs help patients steady themselves while getting in and out of tubs. Detectable warning signs such as sidewalk yellow bumps and other visual and detectable tactile warnings play a crucial role in alerting people to potential hazards, thus keeping everyone away from potential fall risks.
2. Wireless Nurse Call Buttons
Nurse call buttons are an essential part of medical safety; they’re helpful when a patient wants to communicate an emergency or a distress signal to a doctor or nurse. Traditionally, they use wires which get tangled easily and pose safety hazards.
However, many modern hospitals are switching to wireless-enabled nurse call buttons that prevent entanglement and make it easier for doctors and nurses to identify who is in need. More importantly, there are no wires, making them safer. Wireless nurse call buttons are easier to install and use and placeable in multiple locations within a hospital room.
3. Patient Tracking Systems
A patient tracking system helps interact with patients, staff, and doctors by providing a digital record of their medical history. These systems are handy in large hospitals where patients have to move around frequently, or multiple doctors and nurses might be involved in their care. These systems help medical professionals access all of a patient’s information, ensuring that no one misses essential details about a patient’s health or medication.
A patient tracking system gives vital information from laboratory results, medications, allergies, and more to every person who needs it. The technology can also reduce errors made during documentation and improve communication between hospital staff members.
4. Medical ID Bracelets
Medical ID bracelets are simple medical technologies that can be highly beneficial in hospitals. They’re so crucial that hospitals now make them mandatory for all patients. They play a significant role in helping medical professionals identify patients and quickly administer care when necessary. Here’s how it works: A patient wears an ID bracelet with their name, date of birth, and relevant health information such as allergies or conditions.
The hospital staff will place the bracelet on the wrist or ankle of the patient, where it remains throughout their stay at the hospital. When staff members need to check on a patient or administer care, they look for these bracelets first. It offers an easy way to ensure that everyone gets proper treatment.
5. Video Monitoring Systems
It sounds simple, but one of our favorite ways to reduce medical errors is using video monitoring systems. These cameras take in a room and send images to security guards in other areas, who can watch for out-of-the-ordinary events or circumstances.
The information provided through these videos isn’t often part of hospital records. Instead, it’s primarily for increasing safety and oversight at hospitals. These systems are relatively inexpensive to install and can save thousands of lives! However, it’s crucial to include more preventive safety measures when implementing video monitoring systems.
Conclusion
Keeping hospitals safe on walkways, operating rooms, and other high-risk areas can be challenging. However, simple medical technology and other safety technologies have made monitoring safety in these areas more accessible. For example, wireless video monitoring systems allow hospital staff to watch patients in their rooms while walking around outside of them. That system helps prevent injuries by alerting the responsible team when patients leave their rooms. The monitoring system also allows hospital staff to watch for other dangers lurking nearby. More hospitals adopting these technologies every day will create safer environments for our loved ones in need of hospital care, doctors, medical staff, and visitors.