20 July 2022
15 Minutes
It’s 9:07 am. A service light has just illuminated on a Hillrom bed* in your ICU. What happens next can have a huge impact on patient safety and caregiver satisfaction. How can your biomed team steer your hospital down the right path? Let’s explore two scenarios.
9:07 am: A Hillrom bed in the ICU enters an error state, and its service light illuminates.
9:18 am: A nurse is caring for her patient when she notices the light. Without knowing what is wrong, she requests a new ICU bed and transfers the patient. She places the broken bed in the hall and dashes off a note reading, “broken.” She hopes someone will notice and resolve the issue quickly.
12:01 pm: Several hours later, a biomed technician sees the bed in the hallway with the “broken” note on it. He brings it down to the basement, where they manage hospital bed repairs.
12:29 pm: After identifying the error code, the biomed technician accesses the bed’s service manual on his computer to review the issue and solution steps. He has some questions for a Hillrom representative. He calls Hillrom tech support, explains the issue and gets the help he needs.
1:06 pm: Meanwhile, another patient is being moved to the ICU — and another team member is scrambling to find an available bed that is appropriate for their needs.
1:56 pm: The scramble is unsuccessful. A rental bed is ordered for the new patient.
5:44 pm: Almost four hours later, the rental bed arrives, and the patient is placed on it.
From start to finish, this process took most of the day. During this time:
Is there a better way? Let’s walk through another scenario.
9:07 am A Hillrom bed in the ICU enters an error state, and its service light illuminates. The bed instantly sends the appropriate error code to the Remote Management portal, notifying the hospital biomed team. The team now knows what the error is, its severity and what it will take to fix it. If it is an easy fix, they can make it without moving the patient. In this case, it is a more difficult hospital bed repair.
9:18 By the time the nurse notices the illuminated service light, a biomed technician has already seen the error message and noted that the bed in question is occupied by a patient. He has arranged for a replacement bed to be delivered to the room, and it is arriving now. The nurse never had to turn her attention away from her patient.
10:16 am The biomed technician begins working on the repair while referencing the repair solution steps in the Remote Management portal. He knows he can call Hillrom tech support with questions if needed, and the Hillrom representative can provide quick information since they also have visibility to the error code.
10:51 am The repair is complete. When a new ICU patient arrives a short while later, there is no need to order a rental bed since the first bed’s issue has already been identified and repaired.
Rather than taking most of the day, the process is now complete in just a few hours. Our caregiver was able to keep her focus on the patient in front of her. The biomed team had full visibility to every step. Most importantly, neither patient experienced any delays in care.
With secure, remote access to essential device data, you can identify service needs — and resolve them — quickly.
Free your clinicians from service management so they can focus on patient care.
Keep your Hillrom beds updated and secure without device downtime and care disruptions.
Optimize your inventory management with visibility to bed location, status and more.
Steer your hospital down the smarter path with SmartCare Remote Management. Learn more and get started today.
