POST-ACUTE CARE

Improve Safety in the Patient Care Environment

Here are 5 ways in which West-Com can help increase patient care safety in your care environment.

1. Use workflow stations to set reminders to visit patients who might need to use the bathroom, have a tray removed from the room or need assistance with other personal needs.
2. Update and display a patient’s mobility status from a workflow station and display the patient’s progress in the patient’s room on the Patient CareBoard™†. CARE results can also be imported from the electronic records system.
3. The bathroom assistance button allows a patient to notify the caregiver that the patient needs to get out of bed. An assist button, in addition to the emergency pull cord in the patient’s bathroom, allows the patient to notify their caregiver when they need help returning to bed. Caregivers can speak directly to the patient in the bathroom to let the patient know they are on their way.
4. Clear two-way communication to and from the patient’s room allows caregivers to provide a quick response so that patients know they are being heard and taken care of.
5. Use the West-Com workflow station to set the results of the skin risk assessment tool for each patient and be reminded about daily skin assessments, moisture management, nutrition and hydration optimization. This will also post HAPU precautionary icons both outside and inside the patients’ rooms.

† Patent Pending

Engage for Better Health Outcomes

Engaged patients have better pain control and symptom resolution, better emotional health, significantly fewer preventable hospital readmissions, better management of chronic diseases, and overall improved functioning. West-Com’s engagement solution can also reduce patient anxiety by visually acknowledging a patient’s request for assistance and keeping patients and family members informed regarding the care plan. It can also answer patients’ most frequently asked questions, such as, “Is it time for my pain meds?”, “What is my goal today?”, “When do I have Physical Therapy?” and “What do I need at home to continue my care?”. The result is an educated patient who understands their care path to going home.

Improve Caregiver Environment and Satisfaction

Human factors, such as the effects of stress and fatigue, affect the quality of care that patients receive and staff satisfaction levels at work. Using healthcare technology to reduce interruptions and distractions that staff members face daily can ease these effects. Tools that reduce patient calls, predict patients’ needs, enhance staff members’ communication and integrate with other healthcare systems allow caregivers to spend more time caring for their patients, positively affecting patient outcomes and raising their work satisfaction levels.

Enhanced communication among healthcare provider teams has been shown to greatly improve the teams’ understanding of care goals and decrease length of facility stays. Tools such as West-Com’s Patient CareBoard™, workflow station, and Unit CareBoard™ keep team members informed about changes in the patient’s condition, care plan and daily care goals.

Streamlining interdepartmental communications takes the hassle out of tasks such as requesting housekeeping, freeing up caregivers to do what they do best – help patients get healthy.