Our assistive personnel found that the
Honeywell Dolphin 9900 lost patient data because
it couldn’t maintain a connection to the hospital’s
wireless network, although multiple access points
were located throughout the unit. Our hospital pur
chased the Motorola MC9500 because we found it
to be con sistently reliable in maintaining connectiv
ity for immediate transfer of data from the patient’s
bedside to the EMR.
Originally, temperature was included on the VSA
scoring chart. This vital sign was problematic, how
ever, because normal and abnormal ranges for pa
tients with specific conditions, such as hypothermia
related to shock, are not easily identified in nursing
literature. During the pilot program, nurses reported
a large number of false alerts caused by abnormally
low temperature readings that couldn’t be correlated
The VSA system neither attempts to “think for” the nurse—nor
prescribes specific nursing interventions based on the physiologic
dysfunction displayed. It is simply an alerting too