Starling

=Starling=

Overview:
Starling is a bedside communication interface that provides several features. It's main feature is its focus on patient-nurse communication, especially with language barriers. Starling's interface allows for a patient and nurse to communicate through universally understood icons. For example a cup icon to indicate thirst along with a text explanation in their language of choice. Or an image of a person leaning out of a bed to show the desire to get up from their bed. Starling also provides an interface for patient management. Starling keeps track of requests from patients for nurses, as well as using data from prior patient requests to lead to better patient care. Starling also provides a mobile application for nurses; all to improve the patient care experience. media type="custom" key="24409826"

Objectives:

 * Improve Patient Care
 * Remove language barriers between nurses and patients
 * Increase efficiency of nurses
 * Streamline patient care
 * Lowering costs of care

Benefits:

 * Allows nurses to communicate with patients; leading to better care.
 * Decreases time spent deciphering a patients requests
 * Leaves a paper trail of patient requests therefore improving accountability.
 * With the possible immigration legislation, the number of non English speaking people will likely go up. This also means that nurses must deal with a possible increase in non English speaking patients. Starling can be a great tool in tackling the challenges.

Challenges:

 * Still needs funding.
 * Currently not EMR integrated.
 * Making sure translations within the interface are accurate.
 * As with all health and medical technology, products must be made HIPAA compliant.
 * Competition from other bedside communication units.

Outlook
Starling seems to be a great idea as we look for ways to lower the cost of healthcare. Nurses can become occupied with many patients and if we can improve the efficiency of nurses, we can improve the care of patients and potentially get them out of the hospitals quicker. Starling's greatest potential improvement upon healthcare is the ability to communicate across a language barrier. Medical professionals can provide better care to individuals that they are able to communicate with and understand.

Related Terminology:

 * Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE)