Telemedicine Control Tower for the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU Telemed)

The Washington University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Elective Surgery

Treatments: Device: Alertwatch - Interaction

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04020887

201901180

Details and patient eligibility

About

A single center prospective before-and-after proof-of-concept study to evaluate a telemedicine center for the PACU.

Full description

A proof-of-concept study in perioperative telemedicine that aims to demonstrate the (i) acceptability and (ii) utility of integrating telemedicine into the PACU environment. This proof-of-concept study will be conducted in the PACU.

Enrollment: 560 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Adults (age ≥ 18) undergoing elective surgery at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri will be enrolled

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Sequential Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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560 participants in 2 patient groups

Observation Phase

No Intervention group

Description:

In the first three months of this proof-of-concept study, a telemedicine center for the PACU will monitor patients assigned to PACU bays. Both telemedicine center clinicians and nurses caring for patients in these PACU bays will independently record information on patient physiological derangements, treatable symptoms, situations requiring urgent medical intervention, and discharge readiness (based on the modified Aldrete scale). During this phase of the study, clinicians in the telemedicine center will not communicate with clinicians in the PACU (nurses or physicians), unless there was a patient safety event.

Interaction Phase

Experimental group

Description:

In the three months following the observation phase, clinicians in the telemedicine center will interact with clinicians and patients in the two designated PACU bays using audio-visual technology. The clinicians in the telemedicine center will continue to document information on physiological derangements, treatable symptoms, situations requiring urgent medical intervention, and discharge readiness.

Treatment:

Device: Alertwatch - Interaction