Early Detection of Opioid Risks After Surgery with TEKTELIC Medical Devices

Imagine a person who has just undergone surgery. He is prescribed pain medication—often opioids—to aid in his recovery. The first two days after surgery are the riskiest. During this time, patients may breathe too slowly, stop breathing for short periods, or have dangerously low oxygen levels without obvious signs. These problems often occur overnight when staff cannot monitor every bedside.

Traditional monitoring, like nurses checking vitals every few hours, often misses these events [4,9]. A patient can go from stable to life-threatening in minutes, a change easily overlooked between manual observations [7,9]. This gap in detection iis a proven danger, it’s a proven danger, leading to preventable complications and increased healthcare costs. Continuous monitoring is the only reliable way to catch these subtle, yet dangerous, changes early.

What is LoRaWAN® for Healthcare

To make continuous monitoring practical across whole hospital wards, the network must be reliable, simple to maintain, and secure. Wi-Fi and cellular are designed for high-bandwidth tasks like video streaming, but they aren’t optimized for battery-powered medical devices. LoRaWAN® is different—it was built for IoT, sending small packets of data over long distances while using very little power.

What does this mean in practice for healthcare? LoRaWAN® offers a combination of features that directly solve the connectivity challenges of medical monitoring:

• Long Range & Deep Penetration: A single LoRaWAN® gateway can cover an entire hospital campus, reaching deep into buildings and even basements where Wi-Fi signals often struggle. This means fewer gateways are needed, reducing infrastructure costs and complexity.
• Low Power Consumption: LoRaWAN® devices are incredibly energy-efficient, allowing them to run for months or even years on a single battery. This is crucial for wearable devices like eDoctor and eBeat, as it minimizes the need for frequent charging and ensures continuous monitoring.
• Scalability: A LoRaWAN® network can support thousands of connected devices, making it easy to scale from a single department to an entire hospital system.

TEKTELIC’s LoRaWAN® Medical Solutions

Building on these strengths, TEKTELIC has developed two complementary wearable solutions – eDoctor and eBeat – that bring the promise of LoRaWAN® directly into hospital workflows. Together, they deliver easy-to-use, continuous monitoring solutions that enhances patient safety while keeping deployment simple and cost-efficient.

These devices provide continuous, untethered patient monitoring, designed to fit easily into existing hospital routines without adding extra steps.

TEKTELIC eDoctor: Real-Time Early Detection of Respiratory Risks

The eDoctor is a discreet, lightweight device worn comfortably on the patient’s chest. It’s engineered to continuously track a comprehensive suite of vital respiratory and physiological parameters:

• Respiratory Rate & Chest Expansion: Provides real-time insight into breathing patterns and effort, crucial for detecting subtle changes indicative of respiratory depression.
• Heart Rate: Monitors cardiac activity, offering another layer of vital sign assessment.
• Body Position: Tracks patient movement and position, which can influence respiratory function and alert staff to potential issues like aspiration risk.
• Body Temperature: Offers continuous temperature monitoring, aiding in overall patient assessment.

TEKTELIC eBeat: Reliable Oxygen and Vital Sign Tracking

The eBeat is an upper-arm device that complements eDoctor by focusing on oxygenation and additional vital signs:

• Oxygen Saturation (SpO₂): Continuously measures the percentage of oxygen in the patient’s blood, a direct indicator of oxygen delivery to tissues.
• Heart Rate: Provides continuous cardiac monitoring.
• Respiration: Offers an additional data point for breathing patterns.
• Body Temperature: Similar to eDoctor, it provides continuous temperature data.

Experts agree that two signals matter most for opioid safety: breathing and oxygen levels. eDoctor tracks breathing, while eBeat tracks oxygen — covering both sides of the risk.

Both devices use LoRaWAN® connectivity, a low-power wireless network that can cover an entire hospital floor with just a few gateways. Unlike Wi-Fi or bedside cables, it is simple to set up and easy to maintain. With batteries that last for months, there’s little need for upkeep, and monitoring runs without interruption.

All data is sent to a central dashboard, where staff can see clear trends, set simple alert limits, and receive instant notifications on their devices. This makes eDoctor and eBeat a practical and reliable choice for everyday hospital care.

Continuous Monitoring: From Reactive to Proactive Care

Using continuous monitoring with TEKTELIC Healthcare Solutions changes patient care from reacting to problems to preventing them. Hospitals that adopt this advanced surveillance consistently report significant improvements:

• Reduced Rescue Events and ICU Transfers: Studies, like the one at Dartmouth-Hitchcock using continuous pulse oximetry, have shown substantial reductions in emergency interventions and transfers to intensive care units [1,2,10]. Multicenter analyses further confirm that patients on continuously monitored wards have a lower risk of death or ICU admission compared to those receiving intermittent checks [3].
• Enhanced Patient Safety: The PRODIGY study, specifically focusing on patients receiving parenteral opioids, revealed a startling truth: nearly half experienced at least one episode of opioid-induced respiratory depression (OIRD) when continuously monitored—events that were completely invisible with standard intermittent observations [5]. This highlights how crucial continuous monitoring is for true patient safety.
• Early Intervention Opportunities: Research indicates that serious pulmonary complications are almost always preceded by multiple OIRD episodes. This provides clinicians with a vital window for early, targeted intervention when continuous surveillance is active, preventing conditions from escalating [6].

Curious how smart monitoring devices are changing healthcare? Explore their impact on patients and providers in the article: “What is health monitoring device? Main Types and the Best Digital Health Solutions“

Streamlined Clinical Workflow with TEKTELIC eDoctor & eBeat

TEKTELIC’s eDoctor and eBeat are made to built to fit smoothly into daily routines, supporting staff efficiency and better patient outcomes without extra burden:

• Real-time OIRD Alerts: The combined, continuous data from eDoctor (respiratory rate, chest expansion) and eBeat (SpO₂, heart rate) provides the earliest possible warning signs of respiratory compromise [5,6]. This empowers care teams to quickly adjust opioid dosing, provide oxygen or ventilatory support, or activate the Rapid Response Team (RRT) before a crisis fully develops.
• Safer Recovery, Unrestricted Mobility: Thanks to LoRaWAN connectivity and the long battery life of eDoctor and eBeat, patients can be continuously monitored even while ambulating (supporting Enhanced Recovery After Surgery, or ERAS, protocols) or sleeping. This preserves patient mobility and rest, which are crucial for recovery, without compromising safety [8].
• Ward-wide Situational Awareness: Data from eDoctor and eBeat seamlessly feeds into Early Warning Scores (EWS), nurse consoles, and RRT pagers. This mirrors successful models that have demonstrably reduced rescue events and ICU transfers, ensuring hospital-wide readiness and coordinated care [1,2,10].
• Infection control: Devices are designed for easy cleaning with standard disinfectants, with straps and surfaces made for routine hospital use.

Tangible Benefits for Everyone: Patients, Staff, and the Hospital

Implementing TEKTELIC’s eDoctor and eBeat brings widespread advantages:

• For Patients: They experience safer recoveries, fewer unwitnessed nighttime desaturations, and the freedom to mobilize without losing critical monitoring coverage [4,7,9]. This leads to greater comfort and confidence during their hospital stay.
• For Nurses: They gain real-time, high-resolution visibility into patient status, allowing them to reduce time spent on manual vital rounds and focus more on direct patient care and critical interventions.
• For Clinicians: They receive continuous, high-frequency data that enables earlier, more informed, and targeted interventions, leading to better patient outcomes [6,7].
• For Hospitals: clear benefits – fewer failure-to-rescue events, reduced unplanned ICU transfers, and enhanced step-down capacity on regular wards [1,3,10]. This not only improves patient safety metrics but also optimizes resource utilization and strengthens the hospital’s reputation.

Most hospitals still rely on periodic checks—but what happens in the hours between? Discover why continuous monitoring is rewriting the rules of patient safety. Read the article to find more details: “Virtual Step-Down Care: How Continuous Monitoring Improves Patient Safety and Hospital Efficiency“.

ROI: Turning Early Detection into Avoided Cost

The financial case for TEKTELIC’s continuous monitoring solutions is compelling. Preventing even a fraction of ICU transfers, readmissions, or code events can significantly offset deployment costs. Published analyses estimate multi-million dollar savings over five years, with some programs achieving break-even within months [1,10]. Even partial adoption at community hospitals has projected seven-figure annual savings [3,8]. Avoiding just a small fraction of 30-day readmissions—each often costing tens of thousands of dollars—directly contributes to the rapid ROI of TEKTELIC solutions.

Deployment Blueprint: A Phased Approach to Success with TEKTELIC

TEKTELIC recommends a structured deployment strategy to maximize impact and ensure seamless integration into your hospital environment:

• Target High-Risk Cohorts: Begin by focusing on postoperative patients receiving parenteral opioids or sedatives, especially those with co-morbidities like Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), obesity, pulmonary disease, or advanced age. This ensures the greatest impact where it’s needed most.
• Monitor Oxygenation and Ventilation: Utilize TEKTELIC eDoctor, eBeat, or both, based on individual patient risk profiles and specific clinical needs. Our flexible system allows for tailored monitoring strategies.
• Integrate Workflows: Ensure alerts are routed directly to nurse devices and RRT pagers. Integrate continuous data streams to calculate Early Warning Scores (EWS) and document seamlessly into Electronic Health Record (EHR) pathways.
• Tune Alarms: Conduct short pilot cycles (2–4 weeks) with superusers to fine-tune alarm thresholds. This minimizes unnecessary alerts, preventing alarm fatigue and ensuring staff respond only to clinically significant events.
• Engineer Reliability: Validate LoRaWAN® coverage across all monitored areas, implement robust battery management protocols, and incorporate redundancy where clinically indicated to ensure uninterrupted service.
• Measure Impact: Continuously track key performance indicators such as rescue events, ICU transfers, code blues, length of stay (LOS), alarm response times, and nurse time spent on vitals. This data demonstrates tangible improvements in patient safety and operational efficiency, proving your ROI.

The TEKTELIC Advantage: Practical, Wireless Opioid Safety

Opioid-induced respiratory depression is a common, dangerous, and often undetected complication under traditional, intermittent monitoring. However, it is highly detectable early with continuous surveillance. TEKTELIC’s eDoctor (for ventilation) and eBeat (for oxygenation and rhythm) deliver a practical, practical, wireless solution supported by LoRaWAN® and long battery life. Hospitals that integrate these advanced tools with careful alarm tuning, seamless EHR pathways, and efficient RRT workflows consistently see fewer rescues, improved night-shift safety, and strong, rapid ROI. Choose TEKTELIC to elevate your patient safety standards and optimize hospital operations.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQS)

1. Why use LoRaWAN® for patient monitoring instead of Wi-Fi or Bluetooth?

LoRaWAN® offers long-range, low-power wireless communication that can cover entire hospital floors with just a few gateways. Unlike Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, it does not require extensive infrastructure or constant recharging, making it ideal for continuous medical monitoring.

2. How do eDoctor and eBeat transmit data securely?

Both devices send encrypted data over LoRaWAN®, ensuring patient information is protected while being transmitted to the hospital’s central monitoring dashboard.

3. What makes LoRaWAN® reliable in a hospital setting?

Hospitals often face Wi-Fi dead zones and interference from medical equipment. LoRaWAN® is designed to be resilient in complex indoor environments, ensuring uninterrupted data flow with minimal infrastructure.

4. How long do the devices run before needing battery replacement?

Thanks to LoRaWAN’s® ultra-low power consumption, eDoctor and eBeat can operate for several months on a single charge or battery cycle—far longer than traditional wireless solutions.

5. Can LoRaWAN® handle many patients on the same ward?

Yes. A single LoRaWAN® gateway can support hundreds of connected devices, making it scalable for entire hospital wings or facilities without overwhelming the network.

References

1. Taenzer AH, Pyke JB, McGrath SP, Blike GT. Impact of pulse oximetry surveillance on rescue events and ICU transfers. Anesthesiology. 2010;112(2):282–287.
2. American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Newsroom. New approach to postsurgical monitoring could keep patients out of ICUs. Summary of Dartmouth surveillance outcomes.
3. Rowland BA, et al. Impact of continuous and wireless monitoring of vital signs on outcomes in the general ward. British Journal of Anaesthesia. 2024.
4. Sun Z, Sessler DI, et al. Postoperative hypoxemia is common, persistent, and largely undetected by intermittent checks. Anesthesiology. 2015;123.
5. Khanna AK, Bergese SD, et al. PRODIGY risk score for opioid-induced respiratory depression with continuous monitoring. Anesthesia & Analgesia. 2020.
6. Kor JJ, Ramachandran SK, et al. Continuous monitoring detects OIRD preceding pulmonary adverse events. Anesthesia & Analgesia. 2022.
7. Lam T, Nagappa M, Wong J, Singh M, Chung F. Continuous pulse oximetry and capnography vs intermittent checks for postoperative respiratory safety. Anesthesia & Analgesia. 2017.
8. Upadhyay P, et al. Enhanced monitoring for postoperative wards: feasibility, benefits, and implementation considerations. Ann Med Surg (Lond). 2024.
9. Saab R, et al. Failure to detect ward hypoxaemia and hypotension with intermittent monitoring; continuous definitions show missed events. British Journal of Anaesthesia. 2021.
10. AAMI Foundation. Safeguarding Patients with Surveillance Monitoring: Implementation guidance and Dartmouth outcomes. AAMI Foundation Playbook. 2013 (updated 2023).