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/ News / "Telemetry monitoring of patients brings much more peace of mind." says Head of Internal Medicine M. Veverková

"Telemetry monitoring of patients brings much more peace of mind." says Head of Internal Medicine M. Veverková

3. 11. 2014

The Hořovice Hospital has been undergoing intensive development in recent years in terms of construction, technical and personnel - this is an obvious and well-known fact. Newly reconstructed wards always include intermediate care rooms with comprehensively equipped monitored beds. Another technical novelty is the use of so-called ECG telemetry, which enables non-contact continuous monitoring of the heart rhythm of hospitalised patients in a standard ward.

"In the internal ward, we can use this device for 12 patients at the same time, which represents almost half of our bed stock," says Markéta Veverková, the new head of the Hořovice Internal Medicine Department. In the case of telemetry, patients are "burdened" with an ECG sensor, which they wear around their neck for 24 hours a day and through which their ECG rhythm is continuously sensed and transmitted in real time to a central monitor located in the nurses' and doctors' station. Patients are not restricted in any way in their movement around the ward and its immediate surroundings during monitoring.

Often the patients admitted to the internal ward are people with heart rhythm disorders, myocardial infarction, heart failure, etc. All of these conditions can be complicated by a serious cardiac arrhythmia which, if not caught in time, could result in the death of the patient within minutes. "Particularly at night, during sleep, these conditions can be extremely dangerous," explains Chief Medical Officer Veverková. With the help of ECG telemetry, these conditions can be caught and addressed immediately if necessary. "One example for all: recently, the most serious rhythm disorder, i.e. ventricular fibrillation, was detected by ECG telemetry in a patient who suddenly fell unconscious, and thanks to this method, it was not only detected and identified in time, but also effectively treated - the patient quickly regained consciousness after urgent defibrillation and the condition remained completely without consequences," adds the Hořovice internist.

As well as in the internal medicine department, these devices can also significantly improve care in other departments, for example in post-operative monitoring or in neurology to detect arrhythmias that may be the cause of a stroke. "From the point of view of a doctor who experienced a period when it was not possible to use telemetric ECG monitoring on a large scale, I can say that the current situation brings us much more peace of mind day and night", says the head of the hospital in Horovice.