Vital Signs Monitoring Systems: A Look at Seven Monitors and Their Connectivity Solutions

*Correction: When the article was originally published, w*e incorrectly stated that the Welch Allyn Connex Vital Signs Monitor uses an external wireless radio to facilitate wireless data transfer. In fact, the Connex Vital Signs Monitor has an optional internal radio, available at the time of purchase or as an upgrade at a later time. The correct information appears below.

Vital signs monitors are used to periodically measure basic physiologic parameters (“vitals”) such as noninvasive blood pressure (NIBP), oxygen saturation (SpO2), pulse rate, and temperature. These monitors are typically used in low-acuity areas, such as surgical and medical floors, clinics, and emergency department triage, to track the status of multiple low-acuity patients.

In the current healthcare environment, there is an increasing focus on automated documentation—that is, electronic transfer of data from the vital signs monitor to the hospital’s electronic medical record (EMR) system—in an effort to reduce some of the potential for errors resulting from manual documentation of patient data. Some vital signs monitor vendors provide specialized connectivity solutions that accomplish this. While some of these solutions are specific to the vendor’s vital signs monitors, others may be compatible with vital signs monitors from multiple vendors.

Our testing for this Evaluation concentrated on the use of vital signs monitors for what is sometimes called “spot-check” monitoring. In this type of monitoring, a single set of vitals is measured from each patient at a given time and the time between measurements for a single patient may vary (e.g., two hours, four hours, eight hours) based on patient status/acuity, physician order, or hospital protocol. (Most of the evaluated systems can also be set up to obtain vitals from a single patient automatically at regular predetermined intervals. We refer to this type of monitoring as short-term continuous monitoring; it’s also called NIBP interval mode.)

This study evaluates seven vital signs monitors, along with any connectivity solutions promoted by their vendors. We tested the monitors and connectivity solutions together as a system. Our findings and ratings apply to the particular monitor/solution combinations we tested; use of different combinations might result in different performance. We did not focus on the accuracy of the clinical measurements because the state of monitoring technology is such that this is not a significant differentiator among systems.

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For a side-by-side comparison of the evaluated products, see the Evaluation at a Glance table.

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We evaluated...