St. Joseph Hospital, a leading regional, full-service hospital system serving the Greater Nashua area, announced today that it has become the first hospital in the state to implement EarlySense’s contact-free continuous patient monitoring solution. The 208-bed hospital installed the initial system in its Medical Surgical Unit as part of its continued effort to ensure patient safety. Subsequently, St. Joseph Hospital has increased the number of units installed, in an effort to provide continuous monitoring for additional patients.

The FDA-cleared EarlySense system will help hospital staff address several of the top patient safety concerns recently published by the ECRI Institute, including earlier detection of patient deterioration, improved monitoring of acute-care patients on opioids, and provide clinical decision support tools.

“We are dedicated to meeting the growing needs of our community by delivering the highest quality of care using safe technological innovation,” said Cynthia Arcieri, MS, APRN, OCN, Vice President Patient Care Services, Chief Nurse Executive of St. Joseph Hospital. "Now our nursing staff, with the help of the EarlySense system, can swiftly respond to unexpected changes in patient condition, or causes of concern, to help improve care and clinical outcomes. Continuous monitoring is the latest of several advanced systems we have adopted to support our life-saving work.”

The EarlySense sensor, placed under the patient’s bed mattress, continuously monitors heart rate and respiratory rate without any discomfort, contact or restrictions to the patient’s movement. Nurses are notified if there are potentially adverse changes in the patient’s vital signs, receiving alerts on their pager and at the central display station.

The solution will also help St. Joseph Hospital staff monitor patient movement in the bed to help reduce the risk of pressure ulcers, and when a patient attempts to leave the bed, to help prevent hazardous falls. The system allows each patient’s monitor to be adjusted individually, enabling staff to provide personalized care and better response time to potential adverse events, while limiting false alarms.

“St. Joseph Hospital is dedicated to advancing the safety of its patients with advanced clinically-proven technology, and we are proud to be a part of their vision,” said Tim O’Malley, President of EarlySense. “Our solution has proven to improve patient care, while also reducing patient length of stay and assisting medical teams in saving lives. There is strong clinical and operational evidence for continuously monitoring patients outside the ICU, and EarlySense technology is rapidly being adopted by health facilities across the nation, and around the world.” 

For more information, please visit:www.stjosephhospital.com.

For more information, visit www.earlysense.com and www.livebyearlysense.com.