The healthcare community has a history of leveraging innovative tools to enhance patient outcomes. It’s little surprise, then, that the sector is now embracing the latest in live video monitoring solutions to deliver more proactive and responsive care.
“Two-way video and audio tech isn’t new to the healthcare space, but the solutions we’re introducing now are far more intelligent, interactive, and integrated into the patient care system as a whole,” says Paul Baratta, Segment Development Manager for Healthcare at Axis Communications.
Examples of these solutions in action include:
Patient monitoring: Beyond enabling instant bedside communication between patients and hospital staff, live monitoring solutions are being used to help teams collaborate with medical professionals from around the world. Moreover, live video feeds have enabled care providers to remotely verify patient telemetry alarms, keep an active eye (and ear) out for health risk indicators, and discreetly watch over patients that may require extra monitoring, such as those with dementia, mental health, or substance abuse problems.
“Those live video and audio technologies bring the clinician into the room with the patient, even though they may be at home or elsewhere in the hospital. That’s providing patients with a high level of care and satisfaction knowing their clinicians and others are available 24/7 if they need them,” says Paul Baratta in an interview for its Secure Insights podcast, adding that the ability to provide remote care has the additional benefit of reducing the need for clinical resources (e.g., personal protective equipment).
Team coordination: Feeds from live monitoring solutions can be fed into central monitoring hubs, allowing medical professionals to oversee multiple patients at once. Moreover, solutions like those from Axis Communications come with built-in intelligence and HIPAA-compliant features that enable hospital teams to better assess and prioritize patients, promoting more comprehensive and cost-effective care.
Fall detection: When combined with intelligent edge-based video analytics and thermal imagine functionality, live monitoring technologies alert hospital staff to patient falls the moment they occur. These same tools monitor patient environments for high-risk movements and activities and “catch” risks at their source, reducing or eliminating the need for nightly patient visits.
Medical training and research: Hospitals use high-quality, live streaming video and audio technologies to share their experiences with medical professionals worldwide. This lets medical professionals and students alike get closer to their subjects and improve their skills no matter where they practice. This reduces training expenses related to travel and preparation without compromising patient care.
Visit management and monitoring: Part of upholding patient safety is ensuring they are in a secure environment. Herein, audio and video technologies (e.g., body cams, security cameras, etc.) are being used by healthcare facilities to actively monitor their settings for unauthorized visitors and hazardous situations.
“In terms of visitor management, controlling who is coming and out of the building is going to have a huge impact on patient care,” says Brian Hamilton, president of the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety (IAHSS) on Axis Communication’s podcast. “A lot of incidents originate from people who are coming into the hospital because of free access. [Enhancing] visitor management has an impact on workplace violence prevention.”
Whether in the room, worn by staff or patients, or installed throughout a building, live video and audio monitoring technologies have ample applications in healthcare. And in a day where facilities are more crowded than ever, the ability to have an extra eye (or ear) helps.
Learn more about Axis Communications‘ live video and audio monitoring solutions.
