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The Roundtable: Patient Monitors

Sat Mar 01 2014By Medical Dealer Magazine

This month TechNation asked experts about patient monitors to find out the latest advances in these important medical devices. Our panel of experts also shared information on servicing patient monitors and what to look for when purchasing these devices. The panel is made up of Ali Youssef, director of engineering at USOC Bio-Medical Services; Grant Gibson, the director of vital signs monitoring with Welch Allyn; Michele Shahbandeh, owner of Integrity Biomedical Services; and Andy Bonin, the owner of Pacific Medical.
 
 
 
What are the latest advances or significant changes in patient monitors in the past year?
 
Youssef: Over the past year patient monitors have improved greatly. Increased storage capability enables monitors to store data and events up to 48 hours. Newer monitors are also built in such a way that they can be enhanced and upgraded as technology advances. They are highly configurable and widely scalable. In addition to that, they are being built to store more data, allowing systems to be less reliant on central data collection, so that small scale setups can store data and transfer patients far more easily. It is also much quicker and easier to access patient information at the point of care.
 
Gibson: There have been a number of new products and technologies introduced, including the new Welch Allyn Connex Respiratory Monitoring System. It is designed to address the most commonly occurring patient safety issues facing hospital medical surgical floors, including respiratory and cardiac deterioration. The system utilizes a wide mix of vital signs parameters. The clinical benefits of these solutions are proven to provide the early detection of patient deterioration, a reduction in hospital acquired adverse patient conditions and a reduction in average patient length of stay.
 
Some other advances include devices that offer centralized and remote display and alarms of all vitals signs whether acquired continuously or intermittently. Some also allow all patient data to be automatically integrated into the hospital EMR as well as other nurse call or area clinician notification and communication systems. Also, some may be hardwired or wirelessly connected to the hospital network.
 
Bonin: The shift to Electronic Medical Records has been an enormous change, along with the demand for all monitors to talk and interact with one another. Also full system integration, wireless communication, and switching from paper to digital records are significant changes.
 

roundtable 1 The Roundtable: Patient Monitors  

What shifts have you seen in the patient monitor market in the past year?

 

 
Youssef: With the economic downturn, more and more hospitals have been looking into used/refurbished equipment. In 2013, in the medical device industry, small and midsize companies saw larger increase in sales thanroundtable 1 The Roundtable: Patient Monitors larger companies. In 2013 we also saw the introduction of the Medical Excise Tax in the U.S., which affects only manufacturers and importers of medical equipment.
 
Gibson: One trend we are following very closely is the early detection of patient respiratory deterioration. The same biological mechanisms that cause the body to react to pain are involved in the natural breathing response to the discomfort of CO2 building up in the blood stream. Using medications to suppress one can, in some cases, suppress the other. In the fall of 2011, the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation indicated in an article that “continuous electronic monitoring systems should integrate multiple physiologic parameters to identify clinically significant changes earlier and more reliably.” Also in 2010, the HealthGrades report identified post-op respiratory failure as a $1.85 billion cost to hospitals between 2006 and 2008. Costs stemmed from the use of rapid response teams, expensive drugs such as Narcan to purge opiates, unexpected ICU stays recovering from a respiratory arrest, and liability. An accumulation of recommendations and mandates from patient safety organizations provides significant motivation for hospitals to adopt a solution.
 
Shahbandeh: Our experience is that we are actually competing with the OEM. Before, we would have the upper hand because of price; now the OEM has been more competitive with pricing on refurbished equipment.
 
Bonin: The recent mandate that CO2 monitoring be available within more patient care areas has created a surge for monitors capable of monitoring CO2.
 
How will those changes impact the patient monitor market in the future?
 
Youssef: With the increase of hospitals turning to used/refurbished sellers, manufacturers may start investing more in research and development to come out with newer technologies so they can compete with the growing used market, and set themselves apart from older equipment. With the new tax, manufacturers of medical equipment might find the need to increase their prices to cover those additional costs, which might in turn send more hospitals into the used and refurbished markets.

Read the rest of the article in the March 2014 issue of Medical Dealer Magazine
 
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