Enhancing Patient Safety with Installation Partnership

Inspiren, a health tech start-up founded and led by nurses, emphasizes it was not conceived in a boardroom, but was born out of the critical necessity to eradicate preventable patient harm. The goal of the founders was to address the real-life challenges front-line clinicians face every day and, as a result, help healthcare organizations to significantly reduce preventable patient harm while improving clinical efficiency and quality of care.

Simon Hegele is currently working with Inspiren on concepts for installations for its new automated patient monitoring system, AUGi. AUGi stands for Augmented Intelligence because it was designed to augment clinical staff, not replace them. Nurses are often bombarded with technology that requires manual data entry taking them away from the bedside and their patients. Inspiren is here to change that.

AUGi is the first hybrid sensing platform to use computer vision, environmental sensing, and IoT connectivity to understand a patient’s complete clinical environment. AUGi leverages advanced AI/machine vision technology which automatically analyzes a patient’s physical and digital environment giving front-line nurses real-time visibility into their patient’s care delivery and safety without any extra work,

How AUGi Works

The AUGi Platform delivers a multi-dimensional approach to preventing falls and maintaining safety protocols, providing value and peace of mind for staff, patients, and family members. It’s impossible for nursing staff to be with all patients at all times, but AUGi offers remote visibility and data capture for each patient bed which enables:

• Safety rounding and protocol compliance: Tracking how much time clinical staff are spending with patients, what types of activities they’re performing when they’re in the room, and how long has gone by between visits. Sending reminders to staff to check on patients after a certain period of time.
• Prevention and detection: Providing staff with real-time risk notifications, such as when a patient attempts to get out of bed, so they can take immediate action. Notifying staff if a patient appears to be lying on the floor so they can quickly assist the patient.
• Quality improvement reporting: In the case of a fall or a “close call”, offering a facility private, de-identified image playback to analyze the context in which an incident occurred and encourage the development of new protocols or best practices in the environment.

How Simon Hegele & Inspiren Work Together

In May 2021, the Simon Hegele and Inspiren teams completed the first AUGi installation at a facility in Gainseville, Florida, working as efficiently as possible to minimize disruptions to the patients and staff. Installation of the AUGi device did not require any major infrastructure change which allowed the installation team to move in and out of rooms quickly with zero disruption. As a first step, the AUGi Base Plate was securely anchored to the wall above each patient bed, and once secured, the AUGi device was easily installed onto the plate and plugged into an outlet. Once the best height and position were determined, detailed measurements were taken to easily replicate the process on future installations.

“The Hegele team did a great job leading the first installation in a sensitive clinical environment,” said Vincent Cocito, Inspiren COO and co-founder. “They worked very well with our team, provided useful recommendations, and most importantly were very respectful of the clinical staff and patients. At the end of the day, it takes partnership to be successful and partnering with an organization that shares the same vision and values as us, is very exciting.

We are already getting an extremely positive response from the facility. AUGi is certainly adding value and together, we're making a positive impact on patient safety”

The adoption of the AUGi technology is expanding rapidly, and Simon Hegele installers will continue to work with Inspiren to execute a growing number of installations in hospitals and skilled nursing facilities throughout the country. 

“We’re really excited about working on this partnership with Inspiren and pursuing avenues with new and innovative technology,” said Adam Senne, national account executive at Simon Hegele. “Our main expertise is in diagnostic imaging equipment installation, so we are already comfortable with working in clinical environments, and our technicians are trained and certified in areas like HIPAA compliance. While we ramp up the hardware installation at different facilities, we will streamline processes to keep improving efficiency.”

Inspiren’s leadership team was drawn to Simon Hegele’s expertise with installations in an active medical environment as well as the mission statement, “We make healthcare work,” because it closely aligns with the culture, vision, and values of Inspiren. 

Learn more about Simon Hegele Healthcare Solutions’ medical equipment installation services.