Continuous Monitoring in an Inpatient Medical-Surgical Unit: A Controlled Clinical Trial

Abstract Background For hospitalized patients with unexpected clinical deterioration, delayed or suboptimal intervention is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Lack of continuous monitoring for average-risk patients has been suggested as a contributing factor for unexpected in-hospital mortality. Our objective was to assess the effects of continuous heart rate and respiration rate monitoring in a medical-surgical unit on unplanned transfers and length of stay in the intensive care unit and length of stay in the medical-surgical unit. Methods In a controlled study, we have compared a 33-bed medical-surgical unit (intervention unit) to a “sister” control unit for a 9-month preimplementation and a 9-month postimplementation period. Following the intervention, all beds in the intervention unit were equipped with monitors that allowed for continuous assessment of heart and respiration rate. Results We reviewed 7643 patient charts: 2314 that were continuously monitored in the intervention arm and 5329 in the control arms. Comparing the average length of stay of patients hospitalized in the intervention unit following the implementation of the monitors to that before the implementation and to that in the control unit, we observed a significant decrease (from 4.0 to 3.6 and 3.6 days, respectively; P