Development and Implementation of a Dashboard to Monitor Telesitter Utilization and Fall Rates - A Process Improvement Project

Purpose: This process improvement project aimed to develop and implement a dashboard to monitor telesitter utilization and fall rates. The project was intended to visualize telesitter utilization data points on a Tableau dashboard by collecting data from three databases. The project was conducted at an extensive healthcare system in Houston, TX, which operates eight hospitals, including the flagship location at the Texas Medical Center.

Background: Telesitter monitoring was implemented in the organization to monitor patients remotely using one-way video and two-way audio devices. The primary purpose of monitoring was to improve patient safety by preventing falls and events like medical device interference. The virtual operations team manages the telesitter monitoring services. The data were manually extracted and analyzed from electronic health records, telesitter applications, and adverse event reporting systems. The Tableau telesitter dashboard was intended to provide integrated information from all three databases.

Methodology: A literature review was completed to determine the significance and benefits of a dashboard in a healthcare setting. The dashboard was designed and developed in five phases, including two plan-do-study-act cycles. The process included stakeholders from virtual operations, information technology, and data analytics teams. The project was based on an IOWA model and design-reality gap analysis. Surveys were conducted twice using a heuristic questionnaire to evaluate the usability factors.

Results: The dashboard has seven tabs: overview, interventions, utilization, demographics, TAPS, Epic orders, and definitions. Data collected from the views of Tableau dashboards for the first quarter of 2024 shows the views for Epic orders increased from 60 in January to 133 in February. The subsequent highest frequency is for the overview tab with 104 views in January and 79 in February. A heuristic dashboard evaluation showed the need to address identified usability issues. The heuristics evaluation resulted in a score of >90% for all questions in the survey.

Implication for Practice: Implementation of this process improvement project improved data visualization of telesitter monitoring data on a Tableau dashboard. The information on the dashboard ultimately helps improve telesitter utilization by providing the percentage of utilization. The information on the dashboard can be used for research purposes relating to healthcare information technology (HIT) and patient safety. The telesitter dashboard can be used as a template for further design and development in healthcare information technology and patient safety dashboards.