Healthcare

Patient monitoring

Patient monitoring involves the measurement and monitoring of a patient’s vital parameters. Patient monitoring is particularly important while the patient is anesthetized during an operation, in intensive care for critically ill patients, during medical examinations under sedation, or for other syndromes which require continued monitoring.

Ubiquity as a requirement for patient monitoring

The hub (central computer of the patient monitoring system, usually a PC with single or dual graphics cards) is often located at the nurses station and is operated and monitored by the on-duty hospital staff.

The increasing need to be able to perform these duties from alternative locations, such as the surgery or the lunch room, or even the corridors, requires new concepts from IT for the distribution of information. For this increasing need for ubiquity of information to access vital parameters of patients, various solution approaches exist.

A functional approach is signal distribution by means of KVM extension and switching technology. The transmission of patient monitoring signals by means of KVM technology also contributes to improving safety.

KVM extension and switching technology

Employing receiver-transmitter units, KVM signals (keyboard, video, and mouse) are transmitted from A to B (point-to-point). The local control station at the nurses station remains to gain access to the patient monitoring system — additional monitoring stations can be connected accordingly. The solution transmits important audio signals as well, ensuring that all alarm calls are sent to the staff at every location.

Additional monitoring stations can be added to the system by either cascading the KVM extenders or by integrating a KVM switch.

AV extenders are sufficient for the mere transmission of video and audio (e.g. to display content in the corridors of the station).

Solutions are available for either concept (KVM and AV extensions), for both analog (VGA) and digital (DVI, HDMI, Display Port) video signals.

Black Box provides proven signal extension solutions for all transmission types – proprietary and via network topologies. For detailed expert advice on solutions for patient monitoring, please contact our free Tech Support.

KVM solutions for patient monitoring