Bedside Patient Monitoring - 12-Lead ECG Formatting

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has identified BEDSIDE PATIENT MONITORING SYSTEMS (BPMS) as candidate items for integration standardization. In support of this effort, standard pathways for each data source (e.g. discrete vitals, electrocardiogram [ECG]) are being defined and built out for all sources of BPMS patient data.

The proposed solution for BPMS aims to consolidate the diverse array of existing solutions into a unified integration point that streamlines data capture, exchange, and consumption across the enterprise. This standardized approach will enhance patient safety, improve clinical workflow efficiency, enable a wider variety of facility-specific point-of-care solutions based on facility needs while maintaining standard integration, and ensure accurate data integration, while providing a reliable monitoring experience. Four interface workflows support patient monitoring: discrete vitals, patient demographics, telemetry waveform strip reporting, and bedside 12-lead ECG studies. With standardization of these interfaces, information flow from disparate BPMS into the Federal EHR will be consistent across different point-of-care devices. While the VA has worked out integration solutions for three of the four, a need exists for middleware that can ingest 12-lead ECG data from BPMS, format it, and deliver it to the appropriate endpoint.