The Mission Hospital used Kinect, a line of motion-sensing devices developed by Microsoft, to monitor patient movements through an infrared camera. This ‘virtual sitter’ was programmed to define trigger points in the patient’s room, such as trip wires that might lead to a fall.
A live video feed from the camera was also transmitted to a centralized monitor technician, who received visual and audio alerts when a patient moved across boundaries or near trigger points. The monitor technician either used an audio interface to tell the patient to remain in bed, contacted a registered nurse for further intervention or contacted a unit supervisor for emergency intervention.
Patients with the ‘virtual sitter’ program experienced zero inpatient falls and zero injuries during the three-month pilot period, while patients not enrolled in the program experienced a rate of 4.06 falls and 2.45 injuries per 1,000 days of care. Mission Hospital found that the monitor technician reaching out to patients through audio interface, which accounted for 50 percent of interventions, was “highly effective.”
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