Philips, Emergin release system for critical care communications

Philips Medical Systems, in collaboration with Emergin, has unveiled a new Patient Monitoring Gateway that allows care teams to communicate secondary alarm information.
   
Philips' IntelliVue patient monitors and telemetry systems generate primary alarms that are sent to the IntelliVue Information Center. The Information Center then sends secondary alarm information through the Patient Monitoring Gateway to clinicians' personal communication devices, such as alphanumeric pagers, wireless phones or voice-recognition badges.
   
"We are supporting our customers' efforts to provide information to caregivers to supplement primary notification methods," said Bill Mixon, vice president, customer services, for Philips Medical Systems. "While clinicians must stay within audible and visual range of primary alarms, it can be beneficial to begin understanding what is happening before they reach the bedside."
   
According to Philips, the Patient Monitoring Gateway enables healthcare organizations to create evidence-based documentation to measure average acknowledgement times. Nurse managers can access quantitative data to support corrective actions and the fine-tuning of protocols for patient care, Philips said.
   
The Patient Monitoring Gateway is compatible with a majority of communication vendors. Emergin helps healthcare organizations implement an alarm management and event notification strategy that is standard across the patient care delivery process, Philips said.

Around the web

The new technology shows early potential to make a significant impact on imaging workflows and patient care. 

Richard Heller III, MD, RSNA board member and senior VP of policy at Radiology Partners, offers an overview of policies in Congress that are directly impacting imaging.
 

The two companies aim to improve patient access to high-quality MRI scans by combining their artificial intelligence capabilities.