Becker's Hospital Review

80 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING 3 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING care, and is used in a variety of healthcare environments from daily infusions to the most critical of patients. The solution is with patients 24/7, providing an extra set of eyes to help clinicians reduce patient harm." During the pandemic, the benefits of continuous patient monitoring solutions like ivWatch became even more evident. To minimize exposure to COVID-19, conserve PPE and prevent the spread of the virus to other patients, some hospitals placed infusion pumps outside of patient rooms and ran tubes either under room doors or through holes in the wall. 3 Under these conditions, relying solely on limited in-person checks for infiltration and extravasation is even more risky. A recent journal article described a 72-year-old woman who was hospitalized due to COVID-19 pneumonia superimposed with bacterial pneumonia and sepsis. 4 She was given doxycycline intravenously, which is a vesicant drug, and experienced a severe infiltration injury. This led to compartment syndrome. After emergency surgery and 7 months of follow-up care, the patient's wound was healed and doctors were able to preserve the patient's hand function close to 60 of 100 (per patient's self-assessment) due to scar contracture and limitations of wrist movement. As nurse-to-patient ratios decrease, less time is available to spend with each patient. Continuous patient monitoring solutions like ivWatch can offer clinicians "breathing room" during unprecedented times like pandemics, as well as extra support during routine patient care. When continuous monitoring solutions and other advanced technologies are used, nurses can perform focused assessments and have more meaningful patient interactions; when they are not in the room, these technologies can provide important real-time notifications. Monitoring solutions, like ivWatch, are valuable tools to give nurses insights into what they cannot always see and help improve patient safety outcomes. With healthcare staffing shortages, it's time to give continuous monitoring solutions a second look Continuous monitoring technologies have come a long way, thanks to advances in microcomputing. By extracting signals from sensors, more types of patient monitoring is now possible. In addition, clinician workflows associated with continuous monitoring are more streamlined, since false alarms have been significantly reduced. "I think healthcare leaders need to give continuous monitoring a second look, in light of the current staffing shortages," Mr. Warren said. Like other continuous monitoring solutions, IV monitoring shouldn't still be suck in the 80s. Technology has changed and so should the way we monitor for patient IV safety."n 1 Helm, R.E., Klausner, J.D., Klemperer, J.D., Flint, L.M., & Huang E. (2015). Accepted but Unacceptable. Journal of Infusion Nursing, 38(3), 189-203. https://doi.org/10.1097/nan.0000000000000100 2 Helm, R.E., Klausner, J.D., Klemperer, J.D., Flint, L.M., & Huang E. (2015). Accepted but Unacceptable. Journal of Infusion Nursing, 38(3), 189-203. https://doi.org/10.1097/nan.0000000000000100 3 Miller, J. (2022). Using IV Pumps Outside the Patient's Room – What We've Learned During the Pandemic. American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. https://www.aacn.org/blog/using-iv-pumps-outside-the-patients-room-what- weve-learned-during-the-pandemic#:~:text=Placing%20IV%20pumps%20 outside%20the,the%20virus%20causing%20COVID%2D19. 4 Tirrell, A.R., Nigam, M., Hung, R.W. (2022). Isolated Compartment Syndrome of the Hand After Intravenous Doxycycline Infiltration Injury. Journal of Hand Surgery. https://www.jhsgo.org/article/S2589-5141(21)00129-8/pdf ivWatch, LLC is a biosensor technology company focused on improving patient safety and the effectiveness of intravenous therapy. Our dedicated and passionate team is pioneering the use of optical sensors to detect adverse IV events early to minimize the risk of injury caused by infiltrations and extravasations. By using this technology, clinicians can leverage continuous monitoring to help identify infiltrations as early as possible. Our innovative IV site monitoring solutions are backed by decades of clinical research and device development. To learn more, follow us on Twitter @ivWatch, Facebook @ivWatchLLC, and LinkedIn @ivWatch-LLC, or visit www.ivWatch.com.

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