Greene County Medical Center has purchased three fetal monitors for the obstetrics department. Acute care director Ann Erickson said, “These will make a dramatic change in patient care, allowing nurses to monitor patients using large screens installed in OB patient rooms.” Dr. David Jaskey and certified midwife Valerie Martin of Advanced Women’s Care are also able to monitor patients from their offices.
This central monitoring allows the nurse to step away from the bedside and gives the patient more privacy during early labor. Patient information is automatically transferred to the patient care flow sheet for documenting, which allows the nursing staff more time to care for the patient. Documentation from the monitors is compatible with the upcoming Epic system, making transferring a patient and her information seamless when necessary.
Cardiac monitors were also purchased for the emergency room and acute floor, which will allow for out-of-room monitoring. Information from these will also feed automatically into the Epic medical record system.
Both the fetal monitors and the cardiac monitors were purchased with funds that are part of the medical center’s $2.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).
