• Yassin Eddahchouri, Roel V Peelen, Mats Koeneman, TouwHugo R WHRWDepartment of Intensive Care, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands., Harry van Goor, and BredieSebastian J HSJHDepartment of Internal Medicine, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands..
• Department of Surgery, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: Yassin.eddahchouri@radboudumc.nl.
• Br J Anaesth. 2022 May 1; 128 (5): 857-863.

BackgroundContinuous vital sign monitoring may potentially be improved through the use of wearable monitors linked wirelessly to hospital electronic patient records. By improving early detection of physiological deterioration this approach may save lives.MethodsWe performed a single-centre before-and-after study including surgical and medical patients at a university hospital in The Netherlands. The study intervention was continuous vital sign monitoring using wearable monitors linked wirelessly to hospital systems. The co-primary outcomes were unplanned ICU admission and rapid response team calls. Secondary outcomes were length of hospital stay and in-patient death.ResultsOur baseline cohort included 2466 admissions and our intervention cohort included 2303 admissions recruited from August 2017 to July 2019. Patients in the intervention cohort experienced fewer unplanned ICU admissions (84 [3.4%] vs 54 [2.3%]; P=0.03) and fewer rapid response team calls (107 [4.3%] vs 71 [3.1%]; P=0.02). The number of rapid response team calls that did not result in ICU admission also declined (70 [2.8%] vs 45 [2.0%]; P=0.05). The number of rapid response team calls that did result in ICU admission was not significantly different (52 [2.1%] vs 36 [1.6%]; P=0.16). There were no differences in hospital stay or in-patient deaths between the two study periods.ConclusionsContinuous monitoring of patient vital signs using wearable monitoring technology linked wirelessly to hospital systems was associated with a reduction in unplanned ICU admissions and rapid response team calls. Further research is necessary to confirm the impact of this approach on patient survival.Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

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