Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1094308
40 Executive Briefing Sponsored by: A SCs are filled and supplied with the most-needed technology and instruments. With limited space, it's imperative to ensure the right supplies are ordered and equipment is installed. Warming cabinets have played a significant role in reducing post-surgical complications. State-of-the-art technology maintains specific temperatures for its contents 24 hours a day, seven days a week; that makes them a must for ASCs and hospitals. Warming cabinets also play a vital role in a patient's health, and without superior technology, ASCs and hospitals put their patients at risk. For hypothermic patients, blankets kept at the correct temperature in warming cabinets can mean life or death. Specific fluids also need to be regulated at appropriate temperatures, making warming cabinets a must for ASCs and hospitals. However, warming cabinets also require constant data entry and reporting, temperature monitoring and adherence to a set of safety procedures. These responsibilities often fall on nurses, adding yet another to-do to the often-overburdened frontline provider's checklist. Depending on the size of a healthcare facility, nurses can be tasked with managing care for a wide range of patients. From consultation to discharge, a nurse is there to answer patients' questions while updating the staff and surgeons of the patient's health. And in ASCs with a 23-hour discharge timeline, patient groups under a nurse's care are in constant flux. Keeping up can be challenging. To ease the clinical and clerical burdens faced by nurses, it is important for facility leaders to take advantage of emerging technologies designed to make life easier for frontline providers. For the past 20 years, MAC Medical has provided ASCs and nurses with advanced stainless-steel medical equipment, including warming cabinets, to help streamline the temperature monitoring processes and ensure quality and safety standards are met. Most recently, the company released its TS-Series Blanket & Fluid Warming Cabinets, a touch screen, smart warming cabinet, equipped with Ethernet/Wi-Fi capabilities. Typical warming cabinets require constant temperature verification. However, without Ethernet or Wi-Fi, nurses are required to make rounds to each cabinet, verifying the temperature. The touch screen also differentiates the TS- Series, which is designed as a more user-friendly cabinet. The system allows for data logging with digital signatures, and nurses can view live temperature trends through a smartphone app to put complete control with the user. As nurses move throughout the ASC checking on patients, the warming cabinet's temperature and status always stays with them, allowing them to more accurately manage their warming cabinets. The TS-Series Blanket & Fluid Warming Cabinets are designed to help streamline nurse workflow, allowing these providers to spend more time focusing on the patient instead of time-consuming administrative work while also adhering to regulatory demands. Simplify regulatory and reporting demands Regulatory changes in recent years have placed nurses and ASC administrators under increased pressure to keep detailed records. While The Joint Commission does not have prescriptive standards for warming cabinet temperatures, it does require ASCs to have an effective process in place to ensure safe warming cabinet use. When installing warming cabinets, ASCs must identify safety risks associated with the blanket warmer and then take the necessary actions to minimize or eliminate the risks. According to The Joint Commission, "some form of temperature validation test is needed before a blanket is used by a patient." The guidelines also call for staff to be well-versed in the established policies, stating "staff knowledge should include the effects of temperature and contact duration of blankets applied directly to the skin regardless of whether the blanket is intended to contact the skin directly." The regulatory body's Connectivity, simplicity & more — How this new time saving warming cabinet brings ease into nurse workflows