March 2015 Grant Proposal
Abstract
The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Monroe Carrell Jr Children’s Hospital houses 100 beds spread over a quarter of a mile and managed among five physician teams. With this comes the need for meticulous organization by the providers to coordinate the logistics for infants and teams. Twice daily, providers meet to relay patient information, to confirm the location, team assignment of each patient, and to communicate upcoming infant room changes. These meetings often last over thirty minutes causing efficiency and safety concerns. Our goal is to aid clinician teams in making decisions about infants’ locations and in responding to the patients’ needs in an organized fashion.
We implemented AeroScout asset tracking sensors to track babies, providers, and key pieces of equipment throughout the NICU. We also created a mock-up map display system and Systems Requirement Document detailing how tracking technology can assist the Vanderbilt NICU team in efficiently planning and coordinating operations. An electronic map display system differs from the current standard of written and oral communication by eliminating errors that arise from paper transcription, by reducing time spent coordinating logistical information, and by providing quick way to locate other clinicians and equipment in emergencies.
October 2014 Grant Proposal
Abstract
The importance of process efficiency in hospitals is overstated but often under researched. Vanderbilt’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) houses 100 beds spread over a quarter of a mile and three stories of the medical campus. With this comes the need for excessive organization on part of the charge nurse to manage the movement of babies throughout the hospital. This is managed by two meetings per day to relay patient information to the five teams and to ensure the location of each patient is known. The later part can take up to thirty minutes causing safety and efficiency concerns. Ultimately, the purpose of this design scheme is the following:
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To install SNAP technology in the NICU in order to track the movement of babies and physicians between the NICU pods
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To develop a prototype design that will display the locations of patients in real-time and allow clinicians to make informed decisions about transferring patients
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To create a Systems Requirement Document detailing the functional and performance requirements for the large scale implementation of the display throughout the NICU.
Through the accomplishment of these goals, we will equip our partner, Synapse, with adequate information to develop our prototype into a working device and to aid the NICU in delivering the highest quality of care for patients.
Complete Grant Proposal: Tetradores Grant Proposal 2014