Facing a growing number of patients with complex needs, SummitStone Health Partners needed to find innovative ways to balance patient care with staff efficiency. The northern Colorado provider of behavioral health services was preparing to move its acute care facility into a building six times its then size, with a highly acute patient population.
“We were looking for ways to create safety for our patients and our staff while expanding into such a large area,” says Brian Ferrans, SummitStone Health Partners Deputy Executive Director.
SummitStone found their dual-solution in Oxevision, the revolutionary contactless patient monitoring system from Oxehealth. With an array of functions including an FDA-cleared medical device and a rounding tool, Oxevision uses secure digital technology to gather data, giving staff greater assurance of patient safety without the disturbance of traditional Q15s. Round the clock, staff can intervene proactively based on activity alerts that tell them a patient might need their help.
It didn’t take long for SummitStone to realize something vital: Oxevision wasn’t just a tool — it was an extra member of the team.
Empowering staff to care for high acuity patients
SummitStone’s move was major: they went from a 7,000-square foot, 10-bed acute care facility to a 60,000-square foot, 64-bed facility. With the physical size increase came a change to the patient population, too. Oxevision was essential in letting SummitStone successfully manage that overall transition.
“I can’t stress enough what a paradigm shift we went through to open this building,” says Dr. Lesley Brooks, Chief Medical Officer at SummitStone. “The acuity of the patients we accept has increased, requiring our team to grow in number and the scope of care they provide. Oxevision’s arrival was a huge part of their buy-in and willingness to take on this challenge.”
This willingness stemmed from the reassurance and confidence Oxevision instilled in the staff. “I was just thoroughly delighted to see the technology in action,” she says. “The ability to see a clear image of the client, even briefly, and monitor their heart rate and respiratory rate, feels very reassuring. It feels like we have the data we need to help us care for this person.”
This was true even for complex alcohol withdrawal or other complicated withdrawals, she notes. Oxevision makes it possible.
“Prior to this technology there were definitely individuals in our care who we weren’t going to be able to serve because they were too high acuity for us to monitor safely,” Ferrans says. “But with this technology, and this supplemental monitoring, we’re probably going to be able to hang on to some of those patients, which will allow us to fully utilize those patient beds and reduce our need to transfer individuals out of our facility.”
Oxevision’s impact on workflow efficiency
Oxevision isn’t just making monitoring more effective, it’s making it more efficient. Ferrans sees a stark contrast between the old and new methods for rounding.
“At our other facility, watching our staff do traditional Q15 rounds was time-consuming,” he says. “Now, with Oxevision, they can efficiently monitor each patient through the system, saving them time and making their job easier. From a business perspective and a leadership perspective, that’s an efficiency that we just built into our workflow which is fantastic.”
This newfound efficiency has the potential to impact staffing needs. “There are many factors affecting our team size, but I would expect that as we get used to, and more efficient with, this technology, we might see an impact on either the size of the workforce that we need or the scope of the work that workforce can take on,” Brooks says.
Enhancing the patient experience
The new rounding workflow improves the patient experience significantly, as it translates to uninterrupted sleep for them, which was a major concern in the past.
“We saw some feedback from our client surveys that individuals would sometimes discharge early because their sleep would be interrupted constantly,” Ferrans says. “It was just a hard place to rest and recover based on those Q15 checks that occur overnight.”
Now, patients can rest without being disturbed every 15 minutes throughout the night, which does wonders for their overall well-being and recovery. It’s no surprise that consent levels have been high.
“We have pretty widespread acceptance of this technology,” Brooks says. “I think staff have definitely heard from clients just an overall feeling of satisfaction.”
“The sleep disturbance issue is one of the biggest pieces of feedback that we’re hoping to see change with our client survey,” Ferrans adds. “With Oxevision in use, we’re hoping to see folks feel like they can stay and engage with care a little longer because their experience in our care is better and less disruptive.”
How staff feeling supported drives retention
At SummitStone, the reduced stress and increased sense of security that Oxevision delivers to staff are contributing to a more positive work environment.
“This technology gives staff that additional set of eyes on patients, which has certainly lowered their stress level,” Ferrans says. “For us, I think an outcome of lower stress levels is going to be longer staff retention. I think that’s absolutely going to be a business benefit for us: staff satisfaction and staff retention, because of this tool.”
Brooks echoes this sentiment.
“The staff all feel they’ve got the tools they need to care for a highly acute population,” she says.
“Once we went live with this technology, staff felt like Oxevision was an extension of their care, not a replacement for them,” Ferrans says. “They feel they can prioritize different things. There is an intangible feeling that they have another team member in Oxevision.”
This Views article is sponsored by Oxehealth. To see Oxevision in action, register here to attend an open day at SummitStone’s Larimer County Acute Care Facility.
