Special Care Providers was recently awarded the South Florida HIMSS Innovation Award for implementing Centric Consulting’s BlueBeak technology, which has significantly enhanced the level of care patients receive within their Special Care Unit (SCU).
Special Care Providers partnered with Centric Consulting, which developed BlueBeak, to improve their “high-touch” multi-disciplinary model of care by using beacon technology to monitor staff interaction with patients, encouraging and rewarding staff for quality patient care.
The South Florida HIMSS Chapter honored Special Care Providers with the award at the 2018 IntegraTe conference on October 2, 2018. The award recognizes providers for healthcare technology innovation in South Florida, taking into consideration the direct correlation between an organization’s IT initiative and accomplishment or a documented organizational objective.
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The innovative technology offers real-time monitoring and visualization of patient care and creates the statistical foundation for future improvements. Each SCU staff member is issued a specialized badge and each patient bed is equipped with a beacon reader. BlueBeak uses Bluetooth to communicate between the badge and beacon reader, providing instant feedback on patients in need of service. The data collected is imported into an intuitive, custom dashboard that provides feedback and statistical data for future care initiatives.BlueBeak’s beacon technology has improved SCU patient outcomes, reduced costs and improved services provided. Early results show ventilator weaning rates exceeding 80 percent (much higher than the national average), decannulation rates have exceeded 63 percent, and there has been a nearly 400% increase in subsequent discharges home. In addition, readmission rates have reduced to nearly 6 percent, compared to an average of 30 to 60 percent at other hospitals.
Special Care Unit is continuing to explore other ways to use this technology to better support their clients and patients.
