UCH installs GE's CARESCAPE Monitor B850 to enhance clinical decision making in the NICU

GE Healthcare today announced that the University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) has installed the new CARESCAPE™ Monitor B850, the company's latest advance in bedside patient monitoring, to help enhance clinical decision making in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Deployed in UCH's 50-bed NICU and Neonatal OR, the CARESCAPE Monitor B850 enables access to critical patient information from any bedside monitor anywhere in the unit. Additionally, UCH leverages the CARESCAPE Monitor B850 care area-specific monitoring features for more accurate NICU clinical measurements, and to help support its goal of aggressively addressing common premature infant complications.

“NICU patient monitoring must take into account the unique physiology of a delicate patient population”

About 12.8 percent of all babies are considered pre-term, representing a 36 percent higher incidence than the 1980s. The CARESCAPE Monitor B850 is easily customized to address these growing NICU clinical demands, as well as the gestational age and weight of each patient.

"Neonates are particularly fragile patients whose vital signs change quickly, so real-time access to patient monitoring data is critical," said Christy Math, MS, RNC-NIC, Clinical Nurse Manager, NICU, at UCH. "We need efficient ways to access relevant critical information. This kind of technology supports our 'grow in place' care model where patients remain in the same room throughout their entire NICU stay, helping enhance patient comfort and overall efficiencies."

With the CARESCAPE Monitor B850, UCH staff can flex monitoring capabilities up or down depending on the patient's needs. Visual alarming can replace sounds to reduce disruptive bedside noise, helping support a developmentally appropriate environment. Large displays and remote controls enable caregivers to view monitoring screens from across the patient room. When an alarm occurs, nurses can remotely view the clinical information without leaving the patient's side, helping streamline workflow and making it easier to care for their patients.

In addition to supporting caregivers, the CARESCAPE Monitor B850 helps keep parents informed of their baby's overall condition. Neonates are initially covered and protected in a setting that mimics the environment of the uterus, which means parents have limited ability to view or hold their child. The monitors can help parents watch their baby's clinical status, while the infant remains in an enclosed environment, shielded from disruptive lights and sounds.

To learn more about how UCH leverages patient monitoring to support NICU care, please view this video at http://newsroom.gehealthcare.com/articles/uch-deploys-carescape-monitor-b850-to-help-enhance-nicu-clinical.

Customizing the CARESCAPE Monitor B850: Addressing Pre-Term Infant Clinical Challenges

With the CARESCAPE Monitor B850, parameter and default alarm limits are pre-configured to help support priority NICU clinical initiatives, which include the following common pre-term infant diseases:

• Patent Ductus Arteriosis (PDA) is a congenital heart defect resulting from a blood vessel, called the ductus arteriosus, that remains open after birth. It is a relatively common condition, occurring in about 8 of every 1,000 premature births in the U.S. Using Masimo technology, caregivers can measure both preductal and postductal saturation, which may help them detect PDA. Hospitals today often require two separate devices to measure these parameters, which does not enable an "apples to apples" comparison. This Masimo data flows directly into the CARESCAPE Monitor B850 for viewing by caregivers.
• Bradycardia is an arrhythmia in which the heart rate is too slow. It often occurs when a premature infant stops breathing, due to the brain's immaturity, and can cause significant complications. The CARESCAPE Monitor B850 trending capabilities help make it easier for clinicians to track respiratory and oxygen saturation status during a bradycardia episode occurring within the prior 72 hours. This helps caregivers determine whether the patient is at risk for further complications.

Because patient monitors are connected to the sickest patients in the hospital, they play an important role in helping enhance clinical decision making and supporting quality patient outcomes. In addition to supporting clinicians in disease detection, the CARESCAPE Monitor B850 helps caregivers effectively advance patients through the NICU care process. Interfacing with the CARESCAPE Monitor B850, Masimo technology provides enhanced sensitivity for SpO₂ measurements. Oxygen saturation measurements help clinicians determine when patients can be weaned off ventilators.

"NICU patient monitoring must take into account the unique physiology of a delicate patient population," said David Ataide, vice president and general manager of Patient Care Solutions, GE Healthcare. "The UCH NICU demonstrates how the CARESCAPE Monitor B850 can be easily customized to meet specific care-area needs. The CARESCAPE Monitor B850 helps support UCH's NICU objectives because it was created with extensive clinician input and thousands of hours of clinical testing. The CARESCAPE Monitor B850 is a valuable addition to the CARESCAPE portfolio, enabling quality clinical information in support of better patient outcomes."

The CARESCAPE Monitor B850 is a key component to the platform of GE Healthcare technologies used at UCH. The hospital has also implemented CARESCAPE™ Patient Data Module, a portable device that enables continuous monitoring during patient intra-hospital transport. This helps reduce data gaps as patients move from the NICU to other units, such as the OR or radiology department. GE Healthcare DINAMAP® helps support patient care further by enhancing the accuracy of NICU blood pressure measurements. Its clinical algorithms account for patient movement and low blood pressure rates characteristic of premature infants, and its non-invasive measurements reduce the pain and discomfort caused by traditional invasive techniques.

Additionally, UCH is the first hospital to leverage InSite, a GE Healthcare remote diagnostic and repair service, with the CARESCAPE Monitor B850. This means bedside monitors can maintain themselves through a remote serviceability feature, which enables remote diagnostics and predictive maintenance. This may help prevent system downtime and reduce overall servicing needs. The remote service feature also supports seamless upgrades, making the monitors easier to keep current.