title: Developing a vital sign alert system.
abstract: This article describes the implementation of a nurse-designed, automated system for enhancing patient monitoring on medical-surgical and step-down nursing units. The system, which is not derived from any of the early warning scoring systems described in nursing literature, was developed and put into place at a large tertiary hospital in eastern Virginia and found to substantially reduce out-of-unit codes without increasing nurses' workload.
authors.affiliation: Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, Norfolk, VA, USA. bgjones@sentara.com
authors.forename: Barbara G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D034201:Computers, Handheld; D003658:Decision Making, Computer-Assisted; D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012985:Software Design; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers; D014768:Virginia; D055986:Vital Signs