A hospital in Florida lost an entire supply of skin grafts because the refrigerator they were stored in malfunctioned.
A freezer malfunction in Massachusetts severely damaged a third of the world’s largest collection of brain samples being used to study autism.
These are just two recent examples of what happens when stand-alone monitoring and alerting equipment in an acute care environment doesn’t function properly.
Given the serious liabilities and number of applications within a hospital, the case certainly can be made for centralizing and automating monitoring, alerting and reporting for environmental monitoring – not to mention patient safety.
To maintain optimal conditions for day-to-day operations, hospitals should implement a situational awareness strategy that includes environmental monitoring. If technology can be used to effectively keep an eye on all of “the stuff,” then clinicians and staff can pay more attention to patients.
