What Nurses and Nurse Leaders Can Take from Hillcrest’s Story
At Hillcrest Medical Center, April, a bedside nurse, and Carla, the Chief Nursing Officer, share how the BioButton®* wearable device transformed patient monitoring and nursing workflow.
April introduces the BioButton®* to her patient as a small, adhesive device placed on the upper-left chest, designed to monitor heart rate, respiratory rate, and skin temperature continuously, among other parameters. No beeping, no bulky wires—just ongoing data that uploads directly into the patient's chart.
One evening, the remote monitoring team flagged a rising respiratory rate (into the 28–31 breaths per minute range). April was notified in real time, checked on the patient immediately, and addressed the situation before it became critical. By contrast, traditional nursing protocols might miss that shift until the next scheduled 4 to 8-hour check.
April highlights several key benefits:
- Peace of mind for patients and families, knowing someone always has eyes on vital signs—even when the room is empty.
- Significantly more data: up to 1,440 readings per day, compared to just a handful of periodic checks.
- Effective alerts: only clinically actionable notifications reach her—no endless noise.
- Ultimately, this means April can focus her time and attention on high-impact nursing activities—not routine charting.
Carla, the Chief Nursing Officer, reflects on why BioButton®* was a strategic priority. She saw early on that it would benefit three groups simultaneously: patients, families, and staff. She saw potential in its ability to catch patient decline earlier—enhancing safety and reducing complications.
In her role as CNO, Carla emphasizes that providing technology that supports clinical workflows boosts morale and retention. She states plainly: “When you give organizations and nurses support, they stay.”
She also discusses post-discharge monitoring: send patients home with the BioButton®* , continue surveillance remotely via the HealthCast™ VitalSync™ platform, and detect post-op complications before they escalate. It's an extension of care continuity that makes sense.
What Can the BioButton®* do for your nursing team?
- Early detection: more than 70% of deterioration events were flagged an average of 15 hours before clinical symptoms appeared
- Fewer alerts, less fatigue: typically, under one alert per patient per day, and 40% of patients don’t trigger any alerts throughout their stay
- Shorter length of stay: clinically monitored units saw reductions from ~3.07 to ~2.75 days, supporting cleaner throughput and potential cost savings
- Other highlights from peer-reviewed studies include high correlation between BioButton®* vital measurements and manual checks, with particular sensitivity in respiratory rate tracking
®* Third party brands are trademarks of their respective owners.
† The BioButton®* multi-parameter wearable device is not intended for critical care monitoring.