Methods
Setting and participants. We employed a prospective, randomized design.
this study was conducted at a 450-bed,university-affiliated tertiary care hospital where the postoperative cardiac surgery unit is 25 beds, 15 of which have telemetry capability.
Complex patients from throughout the province of British Columbia are routinely transferred to this centre for specialized cardiac surgical care. As a result, the patients have highly variable demographic and ethno-cultural characteristics, multiple co-morbidities, and are from both urban and rural areas.