An innovative approach to telemetry monitoring.

To use staff more effectively on a medical telemetry unit, nurses collaborated with clinical engineers to incorporate a commercially available pocket pager with a dysrhythmia detection system. Nurses carry a pocket pager which beeps and displays the patient's room number when a dysrhythmia is detected. This system eliminates the need for a telemetry monitor watcher and provides nurses with ongoing information about their patients. It also created an annual savings of approximately $130,000.