An early step for any hospital patient on the mend is often walking from bed to chair. Physicians have long recognized that walking and sitting upright aids in the healing process but this can be complicated given the various leads and attachments necessary for patient monitoring. Now the FDA has cleared the first sensor to monitor heart rate, respiratory and movement monitors in a chair.
The FDA has cleared the Chair Sensor Solution from EarlySense, a company focused on contact-free patient monitoring. It was evaluated at Coffee Regional Medical Center where it aided care providers in the detection of early signs of patient deterioration and fall prevention.
The device is designed to be placed underneath a chair cushion and monitors the patient without any attachments from leads or cuffs. The company already markets a contact-free vital sign monitor for use with hospital beds; it was approved in January by the FDA.
"The biggest advantage of the chair sensor is that it monitors the patient when sitting on the chair and doesn't require any user contact. We found it to be very useful in giving the clinical team information about their patients, no matter if they were in bed or sitting in the chair," SueLane Hughes, Director Medical/OPO Unit at Coffee Regional Medical Center said in a statement. "The EarlySense System is allowing the medical staff to recognize potential adverse events prior to them becoming acute events that potentially put patients in jeopardy."
- here is the press release