Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1541326
12 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING 1 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING Wearable technology is no longer just about tracking steps. A new class of hospital-grade wearables is showing real promise in improving patient outcomes, streamlining clinical workflows and enhancing the care team experience. To explore what's driving this momentum, Becker's Healthcare spoke with FJ Campbell, MD, chief medical officer of Ardent Health, and John Brewer, senior group manager for Healthcast™, Acute Care & Monitoring Division at Medtronic. Ardent Health, a Tennessee-based system operating 30 hospitals and more than 280 care sites across six states, is rethinking care delivery and wearables are a key part of that strategy. In the discussion, Dr. Campbell and Mr. Brewer shared how Ardent is implementing wearable devices in both hospital and home settings, what's working and how these tools are helping clinicians deliver more efficient, patient-centered care. The catalyst for wearables Coming out of COVID-19, Ardent's leaders identified that the requirements, workload and general expectations of nurses were unsustainable. The level of patient acuity was higher and the number and complexity of tasks had grown. This excessive burden was increasing the burnout of Ardent's nursing staff and technicians. The organizations began to explore technology, such as hospital-grade wearables, to improve workflow and the work experience to ultimately improve outcomes. "This started with a goal of improving the workflow and the experience for the nurse and tech at the bedside," said Dr. Campbell. "That is how we thought about this." A major challenge nurses wrestle with is identifying a deteriorating patient. Vital signs provide important signals that can indicate patient deterioration. "Respiratory rate is one of the most sensitive indicators of whether a patient is deteriorating," Dr. Campbell said. Dr. Campbell acknowledged that hospitals have lagged with analyzing vital sign data in ways that support early intervention for deteriorating patients. Manual collection is time-consuming and adds to clinicians' workload, yet without this information, care teams are operating with a critical blind spot. At Ardent Health, nurses shared the need for better tools to help them recognize when a patient's condition was worsening. Clinicians also emphasized the importance of identifying patients who were recovering well and could be safely discharged. These dual needs, to better detect patient decline and streamline discharges, along with the broader goal of improving workflows and the clinician experience, ultimately led Ardent to explore the use of wearable technology. The value of hospital-grade wearables Healthcare leaders are inundated with technology that promises to reduce clinician burden and improve outcomes but many tools fall short, often because they aren't meaningfully adopted by frontline users. Ardent Health takes a different approach. Before any new technology is deployed, clinicians are asked a simple question: How will this improve your workflow? If the answer isn't clear, the solution doesn't move forward. With hospital-grade wearables, the value was immediately apparent. Automating vital sign collection frees up clinicians and captures more comprehensive data, up to 1,440 readings per day across various metrics, compared to manual checks four times daily. But the benefit extends far beyond data collection. Ardent is using the BioButton™*, a medical grade, multi- parameter wearable that analyzes this continuous stream of data to flag early signs of deterioration, often up to six hours before a clinician could detect it. 1 Dr. Campbell noted this level of real-time analysis supports clinical decision-making in ways no human alone could manage. Why Ardent Health is all in on hospital-grade wearables