Live monitoring of patients is quickly becoming an integral part of the health care industry. Though patient care is the primary concern of the staff at hospitals, nursing homes, and other care centers, there are many tasks that require staff members to take their attention elsewhere in the course of a day. Live monitoring systems are being implemented in novel ways to increase the quality of patient visits and assist the staff members dedicated to their care.
Protecting Patient Lives
The priority of hospitals and other care centers is, of course, the lives of their patients. Doctors, nurses, and other staff members must be vigilant at all times, especially when looking over multiple patients at one time. However, it’s unrealistic to expect one person to monitor several patients without dividing their attention, taking a moment to use the restroom, or performing other job tasks. That’s where the live monitoring services at Centralized Vision can help.
With trained technicians watching over the patients, it ensures that nothing is missed. Patients in need of immediate assistance may not always be able to communicate with their care-givers, but with someone watching, the message to help a particular patient can be sent immediately. For nursing homes and other care centers, dispatching EMT’s in a timely manner can be crucial. For patients already in the hospital, it’s simply a matter of alerting the staff members on duty. This article shows how one hospital was able to drastically reduce the amount of safety issues—including patients falling—with a live monitoring system.
General Security and Theft Deterrence
As with other places of business or residences, live monitoring is a great way to ensure the people and objects inside are secure. For a medical or care center, this can be doubly important, as the individuals inside are often sick or otherwise vulnerable. Proper placement of cameras on entrances and exits can ensure that anyone who isn’t a staff member, patient, or approved visitor cannot enter the facility and take advantage of someone who is unable to protect themselves.
In addition to the all-important patient lives that can be guarded with live-monitoring, there are valuable assets inside most care centers that need protection from criminals 
outside. Expensive equipment is often housed in these facilities, as well as surgical tools and precious oxygen tanks. These resources are not only crucial to the lives of the patients inside, but they could be dangerous if taken into the wrong hands. Expensive medicine is often kept in these facilities as well; it’s equally important to ensure that patients receive their prescriptions and those pharmaceuticals are not stolen for other purposes. Live monitoring in a security capacity can help to safeguard these resources and make sure they are used for their intended purpose.
Building Management
Protecting equipment is not only an issue of theft—powerful machines such as those used in hospitals have to be working correctly at all times. Live monitoring of equipment is a great way to avoid costly repairs or emergency situations. Just a few hours without power could make a huge difference for patients relying on machines, and a well-trained eye ensures that all vital systems are functioning correctly and can be fi
xed quickly.
Turning cameras outward can be crucial for care centers as well. As we’ve written about before, natural disasters can wreak havoc on any building if those inside are not alerted in a timely manner. This damage could be compounded in a hospital or care center, with a high volume of already at-risk individuals inside. These could include pregnant women, the elderly, or those with highly contagious diseases. Not to mention, it often takes more time to evacuate a building such as a hospital, due to the state of incapacitation that many of the patients are in. Every second counts in an emergency, and a trained eye can ensure storms, fires, and other emergencies don’t take the care center unaware.
Avoiding Malpractice
It’s useful for all employers to keep an eye on their employees—just check out our article on that topic—but when the job being performed involves the care of human lives, it can be crucial to have an eye on staff performance. This can mean deterring internal theft of the valuable assets we already discussed, watching for signs of intentional abuse from care-givers, or simply catching the unintended mistakes that could cost a patient their life.
That’s not to say that doctors, nurses, and other patient care-givers are not already highly trained. It’s more about ensuring that proper protocols are followed for the safety of everyone. A pilot program at one hospital recently found that live monitoring the operating room during procedures helped decrease common errors and improve hygiene during the operations. It’s this sort of result that shows a second pair of eyes always helps when handling the lives of patients.