El Camino Health in Mountain View is the first health-care facility in the world to adopt the use of FloPatch, a novel ultrasound technology that manages sepsis in deteriorating patients.
The hospital’s care team has been piloting the use of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved device for the past year, according to an El Camino Health news release, in collaboration with medical technology accelerator nonprofit Fogarty Innovation and Ontario, Canada-based Flosonics Medical.
FloPatch, which acts as an ultrasound, enables nurses to monitor patients’ hearts and changes in heart function, allowing clinicians to more efficiently manage intravenous fluid therapy. In addition to antibiotics, intravenous fluid therapy is key in the treatment of sepsis.
Placed on patients’ necks, the device tracks blood flow to the carotid arteries, blood vessels that transport blood to the neck, face and brain. IV fluids increase patients’ blood volume and thus blood pressure.
Sepsis, the body’s most extreme reaction to bacterial, viral or fungal infection, can result in organ system failure, weakens the heart and causes low blood pressure and lung kidney and liver failure. Failure of crucial organs can lead to death, according to the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
Approximately 1.7 million Americans develop sepsis annually; 350,000 of those who develop it die while hospitalized or during discharge to hospice, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
“Timing is crucial when caring for patients with sepsis,” said Cheryl Reinking, El Camino Health chief nursing officer, in the news release. “Our nurses have seen firsthand how effective FloPatch is in monitoring the effectiveness of treatment in deteriorating patients, especially those with sepsis and low blood pressure.”
The stability of those with pre-existing conditions can quickly decline, Reinking said in an interview with the Town Crier.
“For patients who have pre-existing conditions, like congestive heart failure or kidney failure, giving too much fluids can actually hurt the heart, that’s already having problems,” she said. “So, we don’t want to give too much fluid to patients who have those pre-existing conditions.”
Hospital use
The one-time-use FloPatch will help manage the care of high-risk patients suffering from sepsis with pre-existing conditions, those with failing or struggling hearts and anyone suspected or determined to be suffering from sepsis, Reinking added.
The use of FloPatch will be implemented throughout the hospital’s emergency department, where patients suspected of having sepsis will be screened, as well as in the critical care unit. But, Reinking said, because “patients all over the hospital are at risk, if they have an infection, of developing sepsis,” rapid response nurses who know how to administer FloPatch will be available to provide the device to those outside of the critical care unit and emergency department.
Dr. Jon-Emile Kenny, chief medical officer at Flosonics Medical, said in the news release the device links current medicine techniques and patients’ physiology for better care.
“FloPatch is more than an innovative ultrasound system, it is a new paradigm lining physiology and resuscitation medicine,” Kenny said.
Reinking said El Camino Health considers itself an “early adopter” of
new technology, especially when it can improve patient outcomes. She said the
technology would be beneficial for other local hospitals for sepsis care.
“This saves a lot of time and it provides very accurate monitoring of fluid management,” she said. “So, my prediction is, yes, (local hospitals) are going to want to use it.”
For more information on FloPatch, visit flosonicsmedical.com/flopatch.
