The usage of sitters for patients that are of altered mental status or at high fall risks has been used in almost every hospital for a long time now. Having these sitters helps prevent falls and helps redirect the patients who are confused or altered which helps with patient safety and treatment plan outcomes. Most hospitals nowadays are understaffed and are so busy that they do not have the availability to have eyes on these specific patients at all times while they’re in our care. The usage of tele remote sitters has become more and more popular as patient ratios continue to rise higher and the availability of physical trained sitters decreases.
With the new option of having a tele remote sitter available to watch these patients and help redirect them to prevent falls or pulling IV’s or catheters out help not only prevent injuries but also raise patient care standards to be able to keep eyes on them at all times. Asking family members to stay with the patient is always an option but nowadays that isn’t realistic. Many patient’s family members work, and missing work isn’t financially possible for most families. Having a family member in the hospital already puts hardship on a family, many families cannot afford to miss work and some families don’t even have a family member available to be able to stay with the patient all the time. That is where the tele remote sitter would come in handy and would be able to keep eyes on the patient at all times and would help keep them safe when someone cannot be physically in the room with them at all times.
These articles reference trials done in hospitals throughout the United States, from John Hopkins, to University of Colorado, and Tamps Central Hospital, that show how effective and beneficial these tele remote sitters are and can be for hospitals all across the United States. One article even mentions how “One person safely monitors 12 patients, thanks to TeleSitter”, (John Hopkins Medicine, 2019). That is a huge advantage for a hospital and reduces not only the cost of having a physical sitter in the room, but also is reduces the stress of being understaffed and having to pull the aide or patient care technician from the floor to sit with a patient.
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The biggest driving force to get more hospitals on board with using these tele remote sitters would be educating the hospitals and the physicians to show them the benefits of patient safety, reduction in costs, and reduction of stress of being understaffed due to pulling technicians off the floor to physically sit with patients. One article even mentions a tele remote sitter system known as AvaSure, that their system, including the technology, training and labor, costs about 20% of the average cost of hiring physical sitters, according to Brad Playford who is the CEO and company founder. He stated that an average sitter costs around $11 to $40 an hour and AvaSure is under $3 per patient (Rubenfire. A, 2017). Depending upon the hospital and the department this particular system can tele monitor up to 18 patients, with an average of 12 patients per trained observer/sitter (Rubenfire. A, 2017).
Most hospitals already have telemonitor banks for telemetry patients on cardiac monitors, and it has improved patient care tremendously due to being able to recognize any dysrhythmias or cardiac changes immediately even when the nurse or tech is not in the room. This is the same concept, but with tele remote sitters it would be a one-way camera, with a two-way speaker where the sitter can see and hear the patient and the patient can speak back to the sitter. This allows the sitter to see and hear anything the patient does, and if the patient starts to try to get out of bed they can attempt to stop them before they are able to and simultaneously notify the nurse or technician at the very same time to physically get in there before the patient could potentially fall and hurt themselves. Another benefit of the tele remote sitters is for altered patients that are easily confused they can speak to them to redirect them if they need too especially if a patient is trying to pull out an IV or catheter.
Many hospitals across the United States are only obligated to have sitters for psychiatric hold patients, which usually leaves no available personnel to sit with confused or high fall risk patients. These programs that allow trained individuals to watch these individuals would benefit not only the patient but the hospital as well, by preventing falls, safety incidents, and redirecting the patients it would raise the standards of care and aide in making sure the patients are safe and being watched at all times. Utilizing technology and resources available can truly improve patient and family satisfaction as well, because I know speaking from personal experience that I would feel much safer leaving my family member to go to work if I knew someone was able to watch them the whole time I was gone. Implementing these programs would take education and time, but the long run benefits of patient safety are well worth it!
References
- Davis, J., Kutash, M., & Iv, J. W. (2016). A comparative study of patient sitters with video monitoring versus in-room sitters. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 7(3). doi: 10.5430/jnep.v7n3p137
- Kensley, A. (2018, August 7). Patient sitter meet telesitter. Retrieved February 9, 2020, from https://www.uchealth.org/today/patient-sitter-meet-telesitter/
- John Hopkins Medicine. (2019, February 19). One Person Safely Monitors 12 Patients, Thanks to TeleSitter. Retrieved February 9, 2020, from https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/one-person-safely-monitors-12-patients-thanks-to-telesitter
- Rubenfire, A. (2017, February 18). Health ‘sitters’: Keeping an eye on at-risk patients remotely. Retrieved February 9, 2020, from https://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20170218/MAGAZINE/302189976/health-sitters-keeping-an-eye-on-at-risk-patients-remotely
