High-tech sensors help Bengaluru hospital turn general wards into ICUs

These connected sensors are similar to the patches which are used for ECGs and are placed on the patient's body to capture their vitals

In Bengaluru's Narayana Health's cardiac hospital, the nurses are now spending less time visiting patients' beds to record the health information of each patient. A report by Livemint says that around 700 beds in the hospital have now been fitted with connected sensors, which monitor vital signs such as blood pressure, respiratory rate, temperature, and pulse. The information can then be relayed to dedicated devices.

These connected sensors are similar to the patches that are used for ECGs and are placed on the patient's body to capture their vitals. Inside these patches are the connected sensors that are connected to a real-time health monitoring system (RTHMS). The system is designed by the Indian arm of US technology giant Honeywell, which use IoT technology to relay the data through cloud. 

In an interview with Mint, the Chariman and Executive Director of Narayana Health-care, Dr Devi Prasad Shetty elaborated on the troubles faced by the nurses with recording vital stats of any patient. Dr Shetty stated that the nurses spend a minimum of 15 minutes checking and recording health data. He further added that some patients scream at nurses if their vitals are being recorded at 12 in the night. 

"The Honeywell solution also provides information such as a patient's posture, blood oxygen levels and ECG. It is reliable and provides data on any vitals you want", says Dr Shetty.  According to Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty, currently 5-10 per cent of hospital beds are dedicated to critical care, but in the near future, nearly half of these will be for critical care.

Even though the technology to track the vitals of patients is still limited, the hospitals are now warming up to them.