Overview

p class="body-text-large"For 40 years, Cerner has worked at the intersection of health care and information technology to connect people and systems around the world. Cerner uses the latest technology to create solutions that let communities and people engage in their own health. Whether they are supporting the clinical, financial or operational areas of a hospital or health system, their tools are designed to work for today and think for tomorrow./p p class="body-text-large"Cerner supports its clients by surfacing data that enables them to make informed decisions for better management of operations, while arming their clinicians with the information they need to provide smarter care. Empowering them to know, manage and engage with the people they serve. All to disrupt the industry and transform the way health care is delivered./p

Supernova Award Category

Future of Work: Employee Experience

The Problem

pEach year in the US, patient falls number in the hundreds of thousands, with 30 to 50 percent resulting in new injuries and subsequent care issues for the patient involved.  In addition to putting patients at greater health risk, those injuries commonly add time and cost to their hospital stays. Referred to as “never events” to underscore that they should never occur, these accidents and their prevention are top priorities among health care organizations. In the absence of effective, sustainable solutions, many hospitals have resorted to the labor-intensive approach of assigning a member of the health care staff to sit in the at-risk patient’s room 24/7 to ensure the patient’s safety. This strategy consumes tens of thousands of valuable staff hours that could be spent more actively pursuing other patient health and wellness needs./p

The Solution

pWith ongoing patient care and cost challenges, Truman Medical Centers/ University Health (TMC/UH) came to Cerner with a request: help them incorporate the solution and streamline clinical workflows to address their concerns about patient safety and cost. The collaboration between TMC/UH and Cerner, resulted in the deployment of Cerner Patient Observer (CPO). The revolutionary healthcare solution addresses all three goals while also providing patients’ families peace of mind that their loved ones are safe. Cerner worked with TMC to ensure that the CPO could be integrated into its workflow. This included assessing the patient for fall risk, installing the device in rooms, and collecting data and biomed provisioning the device. In creating the CPO Cerner knew that little was gained if staff attention was now fixed on a screen so it automated much of the evaluations, enabling them to focus on interacting with patients to develop a holistic picture of each patient’s condition./p

The results

pImplementation of Cerner Patient Observer has delivered positive results for TMC/UH. The hospital saw a 35 percent drop in patient falls as a result of the improved visibility into the room.  That means avoidance of additional injuries resulting from the falls, as well as the resultant costs and the extended stays.  The goal is to put patients in a position to enjoy faster recovery, better outcomes, and earlier discharge from the hospital. Operational benefits were also significant. With the introduction of the Patient Observer, TMC/UH was able to remove staff from in-room observation and free the hospital to shift approximately 27,000 nurse hours to other needs and functions.  Now able to monitor 12 patients at a time with a single staff member, the organization also experienced an improved return on its investment. Finally, the change effectively reduced stress and fatigue, and allowed the care team to focus on nursing activities and spend more time with patient care needs. The nurse/clinician that was once required to be in the room with a patient, can now focus on the patient clinical needs while a monitoring technician observes a screen displaying 12 patients at once./p

Metrics

div class="WordSection1" pDevelopments in computer vision as well as cameras and algorithms that process 3D images make it feasible to accurately observe multiple patients from afar. The Cerner Patient Observer operates by equipping hospitals with remote monitoring technology that enables staff to keep an eye on up to 12 patients at a time. The nurse or clinician, previously required to physically remain in the room with the patient, can now consult a screen displaying all 12 video feeds at once. Combining these technologies into one solution can prevent falls before they happen—and do so efficiently, affordably and accurately enough to avoid causing a href="https://www.insight.tech/health/cut-bedside-false-alarms-up-to-99-with-real-time-analytics"alarm fatigue/a for clinicians./p pIn addition to improving health outcomes, using this technology can lead to real savings. Truman Medical Centers in Kansas City, Missouri, uses a href="https://www.cerner.com/solutions/cerner-patient-observer"Cerner Patient Observer/a and a year after its implementation reduced its fall rate by ~35% and falls with injury dropped 57%. “Not only did they see significant improvements in patient safety, but they were also able to reassign more than [27,000] budgeted hours from watching patients to performing actual clinical care,” said John Shilaos, Solution Leader, a href="https://marketplace.intel.com/s/partner/a5S3b0000016PFlEAM/cerner-corporation?language=en_US"Cerner/a Virtual Health. And according to Shilaos, another hospital, a 600-bed facility in the Northeast, used the solution and avoided $2 million from what it would’ve spent last year on staff to solely watch patients. /p p /p p /p p /p /div

The Technology

pThe CPO  provides hospitals with a complete end-to-end solution that includes two-way communication between the patient and care team, it transmits video which is then processed using AI algorithms that can detect if patients are in a position that could lead to a fall, and even has infrared capability meaning that it works at night or in low light. It is also integrated into Cerner’s electronic medical record solution for better communication, collaboration, and operational efficiency./p

Disruptive Factor

pBig challenges in healthcare include growing amounts of data but little of it analyzed or managed; One in 3 adults have multiple chronic conditions, and we’re now facing a global shortage of 15 million clinicians by the year 2030; and costs continue to rise in healthcare./p pSince launching Patient Observer, Cerner has continued to find additional venues throughout the hospital to which the solution can bring value. In addition to recovery rooms, the system can monitor patients on the general floor, especially those in post-op or on medication that might put them at higher risk of falling. Uses are also being discovered in neuro and rehab units./p pMoving forward, Cerner sees AI and machine learning helping to extend use cases beyond the solutions core falls capability. Staff can start to quantify who and what are in the room, when that person or item is in the room, and when movement occurs. Patient behavior patterns can be captured and analyzed to advance staff’s ability to more accurately predict potential falls./p pThe solution may also employ facial recognition/detection to ascertain pain in a patient. Combating bedsores is one more application. It starts with adjusting the angle of the patient’s bed, a task typically left to nurses to monitor throughout their shift. With the CPO’s vision into the room, the bed can be checked, and the patient moved when the angle falls out of the prescribed range./p

Shining Moment

p class="MsoCommentText"The CPO reduces the manual work of clinicians, which has potential to improve the clinician shortage. The algorithms can also recognize if a caregiver or visitor walks in front of a patient. Instead of interpreting the change as a potential danger, it understands the dynamics in the room and will not issue an alarm.Monitoring workstations are placed in secure locations where only authorized personnel are allowed to enter. The video data is then also encrypted and secured per HIPAA guidelines./p