Health Tech Solutions for Compliance: Automated Vital Sign Monitoring in Senior Care

Regulatory compliance is a major hurdle to the success of skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). Issues like strained resources, ineffective leadership, and severe staffing shortages worsen the problem.

Failing to address compliance issues can spell trouble for any nursing home, resulting in penalties, fines, and even the facility's permanent closure. These regulations and guidelines are designed to keep your residents safe and your staff primed to deliver the best care for them. So, it is necessary for senior care administrators and managers to prioritize full compliance.

From minimum staffing requirements to quality measures (QMs) to infection control and more, there are many factors to concern yourself with. Therefore, it’s easy for any manager to become overwhelmed and abandon their compliance initiatives. But you don’t have to do that.

Instead, look into automated vital sign monitoring and other health tech solutions designed for SNFs. They empower facilities like yours to overcome compliance obstacles and crush your quality improvement goals.

Background on vital sign monitoring and automation for senior care facilities

Few nursing home functions have as substantial an influence on compliance as vital sign monitoring. Devoting your efforts to vital sign monitoring could change the trajectory of your facility to the extent that compliance is no longer an emergent issue.

Vital sign monitoring benefits

Having access to accurate, reliable vital sign data unlocks numerous opportunities for your facility around compliance. Taking things a step further with vital sign data analysis, targeted staff vitals training, vital sign software, and workflow overhaul yields even better outcomes.

Here are a few of the benefits of vital sign monitoring in general:

• Being able to quickly pinpoint when a resident’s health condition is worsening reduces the chances of hospital readmissions, accidents, or deficiencies.
• The ability to substantiate treatment plans and any interventions with evidence. This can reduce your chances of legal trouble in the event of a complaint or dispute.
• Improved resident outcomes fueled by proactive interventions based on routine vitals measurements, trends, or outliers.
• Saved time from vitals workflow/process improvements.

Vital sign monitoring automation

You may have invested in new staff members, updated equipment, or legal counsel to improve compliance. But have you put your resources toward automation? Doing so could be a game-changer for your facility.

Automation in vital sign monitoring refers to tech solutions designed to streamline or augment any of the processes involved in vital sign monitoring.

Vital sign monitoring automation comes in many different forms, including:

• Wearable devices and smart beds that take residents’ vitals at pre-determined intervals or on a continual basis (which further enhances patient safety).
• Electronic health record (EHR) system integration, which enables vital sign measurements from advanced devices to be synced to a centralized system.
• Vitals software with pre-programmed alerts to inform staff of abnormal vital sign measurements and notifications to help clinical staff adhere to vitals schedules.

Why automation is crucial to achieving compliance in vital sign monitoring

Now that you have a solid understanding of the elements of proper vital sign monitoring and automation, it’s time to find out why automation is so crucial in this area.

CMS and other regulators are pushing for more direct care time

Per the latest CMS staffing requirements, RNs must spend more time providing direct care to residents - 0.55 HPRD of direct RN care. Chances are your facility will need to free up some time for your clinical staff to meet that requirement. Automation helps your RNs save time on administrative tasks so they can devote more time to direct care.

Human error can stall your compliance efforts

Human errors are one of the most substantial preventable mishaps in healthcare. Every time a staff member manually loads vitals data into your system, there’s an opportunity for human error. Even seemingly minor errors could snowball into far-reaching issues that could hurt your residents and distance you from your compliance objectives. Automated systems can reduce human error, boosting the reliability of your data and informing your staff’s care decisions.

Resident complications are an ever-present threat

As a senior care administrator or manager, we’re sure you’re doing everything you can to ensure your residents' safety. But without automation, your efforts remain limited. Automation supports data accuracy and expedites resident interventions. Enabling your staff to quickly address resident complications puts you in a really good spot from a compliance perspective.

The benefits of automated vital sign monitoring in senior care facilities

Some may shy away from vital sign automation because of its initial cost and training commitment. But it’s short and long-term benefits far outweigh those considerations. Though some of the benefits of automated vital sign monitoring may be obvious, we’ll give you a quick rundown of the advantages for facilities like yours:

• More accurate, reliable vitals data that helps your staff devise targeted resident care plans and interventions.
• Quicker detection of vital sign changes, enabling faster resident stabilization and less of a need for rapid response teams and hospital readmissions.
• Fewer instances of mis-entry of patient information and other documentation errors.
• Competitive advantage over other facilities that haven’t invested in automated vital sign monitoring.

These benefits reduce the chance of adverse health outcomes, enhancing safety, staving off compliance issues, and paving the way toward better care quality for your residents.

Compliance automation technologies Ideal for SNFs

SNFs striving to improve compliance turn to compliance automation technologies. These technologies make it much easier to adhere to complex SNF regulations by streamlining outdated or haphazard processes, promoting easier care planning updates, easing medication management, and more. Here are a couple of compliance automation technologies that are ideal for SNFs.

Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems

Over 80% of nursing homes in America have an EHR system; if you have yet to invest in such a system, we urge you to do so. EHR systems are incredibly important to compliance, as they automate information access and help streamline your staff’s workflows. This is accomplished through aggregating patient information in a centralized location.

Not only do EHR systems reduce medical errors, but they also decrease the incidence of treatment delays, improve information accuracy, and provide an avenue to facilitate reporting. All of these benefits tie directly into compliance requirements.

Vital sign monitoring technology

Vital sign monitoring technology is another solution that senior care managers should consider for compliance purposes. Such technology helps to streamline the collection, documentation, and review of vital sign data.

VitalLink is a leading software application that brings any senior care facility into the future. It instantly syncs vital sign data (blood pressure, body temperature, etc.) via accurate Bluetooth monitoring devices to the VitalLink application. Clinical staff can then update the resident’s vitals per the facility’s workflows (pain level, height, etc.) and then sync the information to the existing EHR system. The software also generates alerts to hasten interventions and reminders to keep your staff on track with routine vitals management.

Aside from ensuring accuracy in vital management, VitalLink boasts many benefits for compliance, including:

• Reduced manual data entry and the inevitable human errors associated with it.
• Data storage is compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
• Faster and more streamlined vitals measurements and documentation, reducing the administrative burden on clinical staff. Saved time can be applied to direct care to satisfy the nurse staffing requirements per CMS.

Is investing in technology worth it?

Investing in technology can pay dividends for nursing homes struggling with compliance. The benefits of these technological advancements are invaluable and can truly make a difference for your staff, residents, and their families. Still, we urge you to take the time necessary to assess whether the pros of a particular piece of technology outweigh the cons. Here are a few factors to consider in that regard:

• Determine whether adopting a particular technology results in cost savings through increased efficiency, lower hospital readmissions, or fewer manual errors.
• Ask yourself how the technology might affect your residents. Will it bolster or hinder your care quality improvement efforts? An advancement that reduces your quality of care is not in your facility’s best interest, both generally and from a compliance perspective.
• Consider how much training will be necessary to get your staff up to speed. Excessive training for marginal improvement may not be worth it.
• Find out whether the technology can scale with your facility as it grows. Never invest in technology that might restrict your facility’s growth potential.
• Verify the technology's security capabilities. Is it compliant with federal or local privacy laws. To what extent can it resist cyberattacks?

So, there you have it — health tech solutions that can help you automate vital sign monitoring and boost your compliance initiatives. We urge you to carefully consider and implement those that align with your facility’s unique needs and goals. They could be the key to your facility’s success in compliance. Read this article to learn more about ensuring compliance in long-term care facilities. We wish you the best in all your facility improvement endeavours.