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Hospital bed safety goes high-tech

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Baptist Medical Center is using a cutting edge technology to increase patient care and prevent falls.   

The hospital is going high-tech with customer safety in a new pilot program.  Hospital president Michael Mayo says the system uses digital lines to draw a safety zone around patients to provide continual monitoring. 

"It provides us a 24-7 review of the patient and can respond if they move out of the bed and try to prevent a fall from happening," said Mayo. 

Baptist doctor-turned-patient Robert Soffler said he's relieved to have the new technology since high doses of his medicine affects his walking ability. 

"As stubborn as I am, I wouldn't want to ask for help. The knowledge that someone is actually watching my walking is probably a really good idea," said Soffler.

Baptist Medical Center and CareView have teamed up to run the 90-day pilot program with hopes the hospital can decrease falls if the system alerts them to a patient crossing the infrared  boundary.

"We want the patient to be safe in our hospital and so we are looking for every way to continue and enhance that as we can. This is just another way to try a technology we think will allow us to be a little bit safer," said Mayo. 

"It's a really key advantage to a hospital to have a system like this," said Soffler. 

Hospital leaders said after the pilot they plan to compare safety results and hope it justifies investing in more virtual safety nets.