What’s Next?

Quality initiatives and incentives are of increased importance, particularly in light of health reform. In designing nGage, we created an infrastructure that could be expanded to monitor more than hand hygiene. Aspects such as room temperature and air quality, patient monitoring and asset tracking are just a few areas that impact patient safety and quality of care. We created an infrastructure that would allow for quick and efficient transfer of information so that the point-of-care communication with the clinicians could be expanded to include information that they would need to know in order to provide the best possible care to patients.

The Control Unit messaging capabilities will serve as the point of communication between the clinicians and the nGage system, allowing for up-to-date information to be shared with care providers. For example, patients on a ventilator should be kept at a head height of 30 degrees for a period of time to prevent respiratory infections. Should the head height be lowered below 30 degrees, nGage will alert caregivers either through the Control Unit messaging or text alerts to caregivers’ email that the patient’s bed should be adjusted to prevent infection.