In this post, we are highlighting the growing issue of anesthesia staffing shortages. The issue is multifaceted, and involves graduation rates, retirement rates, and the changing work life balance desired by providers.
Click the link below to learn more.
The Joint Commission, on August 21, 2019, published an R3 report (requirement, rationale, reference) on maternal safety.
JCHO Report on Maternal Safety
In this report, they urge various actions to improve the safety of maternal care during child birth. In particular, they recommend patients are screened for hemorrhage risk (something AlertWatch:OB automatically evaluates once a minute), and that there is a process for responding to hemorrhages (our software alerts for MEWS criteria with additional filtering for reduced alarm fatigue).
We are glad they are bringing attention to maternal safety, and look forward to being a part of the overall effort to solve this epidemic.
Press Contact Information:
Justin Adams
justin.adams@alertwatch.com
February 28, 2018, Ann Arbor, Michigan. AlertWatch, an Ann Arbor—based digital health firm, today announced a major strategic relationship with Qualcomm life. Through the relationship, Qualcomm Life made a seven figure financial investment in AlertWatch and obtained the exclusive, world-wide rights to market the AlertWatch:OR product.
AlertWatch supports anesthesia providers by displaying a high-level dashboard view of the patient and alerting for certain quality and safety issues in real time so the care of each patient can be improved. The software integrates, analyzes, and displays hundreds of data points in a single, intuitive display of the human body.
“AlertWatch and Qualcomm Life (QCL) are a natural fit. In addition to having their chips powering billions of devices worldwide, their Capsule & 2net platform are in over 2,000 hospitals across the world, helping to bring forward the next generation of intelligent healthcare solutions. By seamlessly integrating our solutions onto their platforms, we can bring real-time monitoring & alerting solutions to anesthesia providers worldwide,” said Justin Adams, CEO of AlertWatch.
AlertWatch has over 100 proprietary algorithms, automated calculations, and alerts that can help providers quickly assess clinical situations without having to pore through dozens of electronic medical record (EMR) screens and tabs. The system integrates with all major EMR systems, and, of course, all major QCL technologies.
“The timing couldn’t be better. We’re expected to grow our revenue 4x in 2018 compared to 2017, and we’re already hiring additional team members to help us grow while continuing to provide best-in-class support to our hospital customers. And we’re carefully expanding our platform into the labor & delivery unit, as well as the ICU, and other wired locations throughout the hospital. The team at QCL has provided invaluable guidance as we expand what we’ve started,” added Justin.
This strategic relationship comes on the heels of a 6-year study published in the February 2018 issue Journal Anesthesiology. “That study showed that patients, when operated on with AlertWatch:OR providing support, had improved intraoperative care measures. More importantly, AlertWatch monitored patients went home a day earlier when compared to those who were not monitored by the system. This was not only great for the patient, but the hospital also saw charges go down $3,603 per case for these higher risk patients,” said Dr. Kevin Tremper, Chair of Anesthesiology at the University of Michigan, and the founder of AlertWatch.
Dr. James Mault, Senior VP & Chief Medical Officer of QCL, and a graduate of the University of Michigan for both his undergraduate and medical degrees, made a dozen “homecoming” trips to Ann Arbor while doing due diligence on AlertWatch. “Some of my best memories are from my time in Ann Arbor. What Kevin and the AlertWatch team have done is incredible. They’ve commercialized the first patient-specific integrated monitoring solution for the perioperative continuum of care. We’ll be work diligently with them to expand their predictive analytics and installation footprint over the coming years.”
For more information and to see a demo of the AlertWatch platform, visit www.alertwatch.com.
About AlertWatch
AlertWatch, Inc. produces real-time patient monitoring software focused on improving quality and safety. Their first solution, AlertWatch:OR, received FDA clearance in 2014. AlertWatch:OR is focused on improving intraoperative care to help reduce postoperative complications. AlertWatch:OB, a solution for monitoring mothers in the labor & delivery ward, is focused on reducing maternal mortality. AlertWatch:OB is pending FDA clearance. For more information, visit www.alertwatch.com, or email info@alertwatch.com.
About Qualcomm
Qualcomm’s technologies powered the smartphone revolution and connected billions of people. We pioneered 3G and 4G – and now we are leading the way to 5G and a new era of intelligent, connected devices. Our products are revolutionizing industries, including automotive, computing, IoT, healthcare and data center, and are allowing millions of devices to connect with each other in ways never before imagined. Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, all of our engineering, research and development functions, and all of our products and services businesses, including, our QCT semiconductor business.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 30, 2015, Ann Arbor, Michigan – AlertWatch is proud to announce that the University of Vermont Medical Center has purchased AlertWatch for use in their operating rooms.
AlertWatch supports anesthesia providers by displaying a high-level dashboard view of the patient, and alerting for certain quality and safety issues. The software integrates, analyzes, and displays hundreds of data points in a single, intuitive display of the human body.
“We are thrilled that the University of Vermont has decided to make AlertWatch a permanent part of their perioperative workflow. One of the best ways to help patients recover after surgery is to focus on quality & safety during the surgery, and that’s where AlertWatch can help,” said Justin Adams, CEO of AlertWatch.
AlertWatch has over a hundred proprietary algorithms, automated calculations, and alerts that can help providers quickly assess clinical situations without having to pore through dozens of electronic medical record (EMR) screens and tabs. The system integrates with all major EMR systems. A recent publication of data in the July issue of Anesthesiology showed that anesthesiologists who used AlertWatch during surgeries were more likely to properly treat hyperglycemia, a condition that is tied to increased surgical site infections.
Improving patient outcomes and reducing the length of stay are paramount concerns in running a hospital, and correspond to national quality assurance guidelines set by the Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Both patient outcomes and a reduced length of stay also affect the revenue picture positively for healthcare organizations.
“Anesthesiologists are at the center of efforts to improve the safety of perioperative care. AlertWatch helps move these efforts forward,” said AlertWatch CEO Justin Adams. “With value-based reimbursement a reality for most providers, we think forward-looking hospitals can leverage AlertWatch:OR in managing both quality and cost savings initiatives.”
For more information and to see a demo of the AlertWatch platform, visit www.alertwatch.com.
About AlertWatch, Inc.
AlertWatch, Inc. produces clinical decision support systems for hospitals. Founded in 2011, AlertWatch simplifies patient monitoring with a focus on quality & safety. For more information, visit www.alertwatch.com.
About the University of Vermont Medical Center
The University of Vermont Medical Center (formerly Fletcher Allen Health Care), is a 447 bed regional referral center providing advanced care to approximately 1 million residents in Vermont and northern New York. Together with our partners at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, we are Vermont’s academic medical center. The University of Vermont Medical Center is a member of The University of Vermont Health Network, a four hospital system established to deliver high quality academic medicine to every community we serve. Our partners are: The University of Vermont Health Network – Central Vermont Medical Center; The University of Vermont Health Network – Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital; and The University of Vermont Health Network – Elizabethtown Community Hospital.
The University of Vermont Medical Center also serves as a community hospital for approximately 150,000 residents in Chittenden and Grand Isle counties. For more information visit www.UVMHealth.org/MedCenter or visit our Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blog sites at http://www.UVMHealth.org/MedCenterSocialMedia
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE–March 22, 2016, Ann Arbor, MI–AlertWatch gains FDA clearance to sell its new mobile application
AlertWatch recently received FDA clearance for a brand new version of its patient monitoring software. The new version has hundreds of new features, all now available on the iPhone and iPad.
“Even though anesthesiologists are always near or in the ORs they’re supervising, our new mobile application gives them additional flexibility to check their cases and get alerts on the go. ” said AlertWatch CEO Justin Adams. “This all increases the likelihood they’ll notice potential quality or safety issues.”
Ann Arbor-based AlertWatch was founded in 2012 by U-M professor and anesthesiologist Dr. Kevin Tremper, Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology.
For more information, visit https://www.alertwatch.com/.
To download the app, visit https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/alertwatch-or/id975325329?mt=8
The entire team at AlertWatch is proud that one of our co-founders, Dr. Jim Bagian, has been chosen as a leader in the field of patient safety.
http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/lists/50-experts-leading-the-field-of-patient-safety-2015.html
Last week, AlertWatch received a shot in the arm from the Michigan business community, who have been supportive of the firm since its founding in 2012.
On Thursday, we received a $25,000 award for being the “Best Medical Device” firm at the Accelerate Michigan Investment Competition. The judges had their work cut out for them, as the entrants went all the way from drone software to a novel horse inflammation therapy.
We also won a case of beer from Atwater Brewers in Grosse Pointe. It was a great night, and I met a lot of new folks from the investment and start-up community.
The following night, I attended MLive’s Deals of the Year competition. We were invited to attend with our “deal” being the FDA clearance our AlertWatch:OR product received in February. I was truthfully shocked that we won. Although FDA clearance is a big and necessary step, it is early in AlertWatch’s journey.
Regardless, what both events underscored is how essential the support of the community has been for AlertWatch to accomplish its early milestones. Our firm has received investment from SPARK, BRCC (an investment group in Kalamazoo), several local angel investors, and now these two awards. Without these, we simply wouldn’t have the runway we’ve needed to get regulatory approval and our first customer.
Thanks!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — September 17, 2014, Ann Arbor, Michigan — AlertWatch is proud to announce that it has been chosen as a semi-finalist in the 2014 Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition. The annual event brings over 50 Michigan startups together to compete for a multitude of prizes.
“AlertWatch is thrilled to join all of these great companies in the Accelerate Michigan Innovation competition,” said AlertWatch CEO, Justin Adams. “We think it’s a great way for the State of Michigan to encourage the local startup community, and to support the creation of highly-skilled jobs in the region.”
Semi-finalists were announced last night at the Techonomy Detroit event. That event brought entrepreneurs, policy experts and thought leaders together to discuss some of the pressing issues around technology and its impact on large cities like Detroit.
The competition will be held on November 4-6 at the Westin Book Cadillac hotel in Detroit. The teams will compete in multiple verticals, with the winner of the $500,000 grand prize being announced at Orchestra Hall the night of November 6th.
For more information about AlertWatch and its products, visit www.alertwatch.com. For more information on the competition, please visit www.acceleratemichigan.org.
About AlertWatch, Inc.
AlertWatch develops real-time patient monitoring dashboards to help hospitals improve clinical quality, provider workflow, and billing accuracy. The product does this by integrating hundreds of pieces of data onto a visual representation of each patient, clearly communicating problems in a way that existing medical record systems do not. AlertWatch has been shown to provide significant clinical and financial benefits to its users, and with strong IP, a strong founding team, and strong sales and product pipelines, we are poised to help shepherd hospitals into this new era of accountable care. For more information, including investment information, visit www.alertwatch.com.
About the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition
Accelerate Michigan Innovation is an international business competition designed to highlight Michigan as a robust and vibrant venue for innovation and business opportunity. The Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition is led by the Business Accelerator Network for Southeast Michigan, the Business Leaders for Michigan, the University Research Corridor, and the New Economy Initiative. These groups have aligned their efforts to bolster and advance Michigan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem through a variety of collaborative initiatives. Premier competition sponsors are The Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Quicken Loans, DTE Energy Foundation, Masco Corporation Foundation, and NextEnergy.
We recently published a whitepaper, titled “A Discussion of the Variation in Anesthesia Start Time Documentation” to some of our partners. It explores the definition of anesthesia start time, and the differences in the definition between documenting (or billing) start time and actual pre-operative patient care.
CMS defines the Anesthesia Start Time as the time when the attending physician started continuous care of the patient.
Under the rules for Payment at the Medical Directed Rate, physicians qualify for two, three, or four concurrent cases — assuming they provide certain activities, such as performing a pre-anesthetic examinatiion, monitors the course of anesthesia administration at frequent intervals, and remains physically present and available for emergency care (among others).
The CMS rules continue and state: “However, the medical record must indicate that the services were furnished by physicians and identify the physicians who rendered them.”
While this may seem obvious, it is during the preoperative assessment period where we see a good deal of variation in the documentation and application of these billing regulations.
Our thorough analysis of the difference between anesthesia start time (AST) and patient in room (PIR) time stamps varies considerably from site to site.
Why is this? Different sites apply the requirements differently — you’d expect a few minutes difference between AST (in the preoperative holding area) and PIR (in the OR), with the exception of trauma cases or low-risk cases.
But we analyzed the preoperative documentation at one site and discovered that approximately 19 percent of cases logged the AST less than a minute before PIR, often mere seconds apart.
Discussions with clinicians uncovered the inconvenience of documenting the actual anesthesia start time by logging into the system in the preoperative holding area. Instead, providers simply waited until they were in the OR and clicked both the AST and PIR buttons when logging into the AIMS.
Our analysis at this site indicates that approximately 3,400 cases a year may have been eligible for an extra unit of billing, or approximately $120,000 per year in unbilled time.
We spoke with a handful of other sites, with a wide variety of responses — we heard everything from:
“We take a conservative approach to avoid concurrency issues.” to “It’s a huge problem we haven’t solved.” to “We worked with compliance and regulatory agencies to develop our own alert to drive a disciplined approach and it’s worked well.”
At AlertWatch, we believe the right approach from both a compliance and workflow perspective is to document care in real time, ideally without distracting from the task at hand. Clinical environments need to balance patient needs with documentation requirements.
When sites moved from paper (a truly “mobile” system) to modern AIMS, this discrepancy arose, as many preoperative areas are often not set up to document anesthesia start time electronically.
The problem is that not only does this lead to underbilling, but a mischaracterization of clinician involvement in continuous patient care as well.
Having a targeted alert — such as the one we recently developed for AlertWatch:OR — makes sense.
This is similar to the decision support an AIMS provides when a physician attempts to document the medical direction of more than four cases. Along the same lines, a targeted alert for documented preoperative anesthesia care that seems either too short or too long shouldn’t carry concurrency risks, if implemented correctly.
That’s why we developed the anesthesia start time alerts; they provide clinical decision support during the case, to help clinicians correct their documentation when they have a moment. We expect this will drive greater consistency in preoperative documentation across a site.
If you’re interested in reading (or forwarding) the full whitepaper text, please email us and request it.
Copyright 2019 AlertWatch. All rights reserved.
AlertWatch:OR and AlertWatch:OB are FDA 510(k)-cleared for sale in the United States, and are intended for use by clinicians for secondary monitoring of patients . AlertWatch accomplishes this by aggregating data from a multitude of sources and displaying them at a central location. Once alerted, the clinician must refer to the primary monitoring device before making a clinical decision.
AlertWatch:ICU, AlertWatch:AC, and AlertWatch:PACU are pending FDA clearance and are currently only available for IRB-sponsored research. Some images and interfaces are enhanced for clarity.
