MedSitter’s Vision for 2022

MedSitter is an important patient safety service that allows one patient observer to watch up to ten patients at one time. In 2022, the MedSitter team looks forward to expanding the service and advancing the MedSitter platform. This message is from our founder.

When we founded MedSitter, we were addressing an important issue within the marketplace. The issue at the time was patient falls. Patient falls, despite being deemed a never event by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services, still occur every day in hospitals across the nation. Tragically, inpatient falls can lead to significant injury and even death. It is awful to consider that a person admitted to a hospital for care may wind up in worse shape by the time they are discharged.

When it comes to patient falls, most healthcare providers are forced to be reactive. The patient to staff ratio is never 1:1, leaving patients ample time alone to suffer an accident. In most cases, patients are not assigned a 1:1 sitter until they have already demonstrated risky behavior or suffered an accident – and that is if the nursing team has a 1:1 sitter available. Nursing shortages have exasperated these problems, creating undeserved stress for nursing teams and putting more patients at risk.

In 2020 and 2021, MedSitter was instrumental in extending staff resources by making one patient observer 10 times more efficient. MedSitter was also used in COVID-19 wards to remotely check in on patients. That way, onsite nursing staff did not have to don PPE or risk an exposure to simply observe a patient and make sure they were alright. I am immensely proud of the work the MedSitter service did to keep both nursing staff and at-risk patients safe.

As I look forward to 2022, I look forward with confidence. The value of MedSitter has been proven time and time again in hospitals across the nation. We have helped to keep patients safe, alleviate staffing shortages, and preserve hospital budgets during an incredibly trying time – and there are still hundreds of hospitals without a remote patient observation system. My vision is to install MedSitter everywhere, in every facility, so that every at-risk patient within our health system benefits from companionship and protection.

This vision is not immune to the realities of our healthcare situation. Nursing teams across the nation are being worked to the bone. They are doing their best to provide top-notch care amidst record staffing shortages and an exhaustive, ongoing pandemic. In many cases, the teams we speak with do not have the time to learn a new patient observation system or the staff to spare for observation services, even when the system was designed to unburden them. In 2021 we launched our MedSitter+ Staff service. Under this service, MedSitter employs remote sitters that can observe patients from our secure, HIPAA compliant headquarters. Nursing team within hospitals no longer need to be trained to be observers - all they have to do is wheel a MedSitter cart into a patient room and MedSitter does the rest. Our remote observer stations are integrated into nursing call systems, so that an observer in our headquarters can seamlessly contact onsite staff for patient intervention. In 2022 I want to see that service expand. It is invaluable to overworked nursing staffs who still need to keep patients safe under a watchful eye.

It is no secret that the past two years have been incredibly challenging for the healthcare industry, and the journey is far from over. In many ways, none of us know exactly what 2022 will bring. At MedSitter, our goal is to keep patients safe without straining healthcare staff resources. We plan to continue to serve that goal with the caveat of being proactive and adaptable as healthcare situations change. We will continue to serve and continue to innovate. Personally, I look forward to the challenges this new year will bring knowing that the MedSitter team will rise to them.

If you are interested in installing MedSitter in your facility, fill out the form on our contact us page now. We can get you up and running quickly and together, we can improve the healthcare experience for both patients and providers.

I look forward to working with you.

All the best,
Tracy Mills
MedSitter CEO