This fall, PeaceHealth launched a new nursing intervention system – the AvaSys Telesitter program. The telesitter system assists hospital staff in best providing patients with quality and expert care. Using the program, staff can prevent patient accidents such as falls and injuries, as well as conduct near-instant responses when incidents do occur.
The telesitter program relies on mobile cameras placed in the rooms of at-risk patients. A staff member then visually supervises the patients through a video feed from a central monitoring station. The assigned staff member is a trained patient telesitter technician and a certified nursing assistant. In the case of an incident, the trained observer can vocally intervene with the patient in real-time, through a speaker system, while simultaneously alerting a nurse.
Four hospitals have utilized the program; PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center, PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center, PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center and PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center in Oregon.
PeaceHealth has also taken steps to protect patient privacy. The system does not record, and a privacy mode can be activated as needed by the patient or provider. If remote monitoring is not recommended, physical sitters are still available for patients.
