Breakthrough ambient sensing technology eliminates administrative burden, helps nurses work at the top of their license
Surgical Safety Technologies (SST), the global leader in AI-powered clinical intelligence, today announced the general availability of an interface protocol that seamlessly integrates surgical case milestones into electronic health record (EHR) systems, thereby eliminating the burden of manual documentation while significantly improving operational efficiency. The technology uses ambient sensing and advanced AI models to automatically detect and timestamp critical surgical events including wheels-in and wheels-out, anesthesia start-stop, and procedure start-stop times with unprecedented accuracy, allowing nursing staff to focus their attention on direct patient care.
The breakthrough addresses a significant operational challenge plaguing healthcare systems nationwide. SST’s comprehensive analysis of manual documentation practices revealed alarming delays that cascade throughout surgical operations. At the worst-performing facility studied, 40-50% of critical surgical milestones were documented between five and 20 minutes late, with 22% documented more than 20 minutes after the actual event occurred. These delays create ripple effects that impact everything from surgical capacity planning to patient satisfaction, while perpetuating scheduling inaccuracies that compound over time. Specifically, late documentation triggers delayed notifications about critical room and patient status updates to surgeons, anesthesiologists, and turnover teams, who then cannot efficiently coordinate patient transitions, equipment preparation, and room cleaning protocols. This domino effect pushes subsequent surgeries beyond their scheduled windows, forcing clinical staff into preventable overtime shifts that strain hospital budgets and contribute to the growing burnout crisis among healthcare workers.
“Manual documentation of surgical milestones represents one of the most persistent inefficiencies in modern healthcare – pulling our most skilled nurses away from direct patient care to perform administrative tasks that are often completed late and with diminished accuracy,” said Teodor Grantcharov, Founder of SST. “Our AI-powered automation eliminates this burden while transforming the entire surgical ecosystem. When critical milestones are captured instantly and accurately, downstream activities like room cleaning, setup, and patient preparation can begin immediately, reducing turnover time and maximizing our ability to serve more patients when they need us most.”
SST extends its gratitude to Stanford Medicine for their invaluable collaboration and support throughout the development and testing of an application programming interface (API) that enables seamless database updates unique to each organization’s EHR instance, regardless of vendor.
“In today’s healthcare environment, it is important to support our nurses and staff in their administrative responsibilities,” said Sam Wald, MD, MBA, FASA, Clinical Professor, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Stanford Health Care. “SST’s automated surgical milestone detection technology is an innovation that leverages Artificial Intelligence to help with routine data capture, providing improvements to our exceptional patient care. This technology elevates and amplifies the irreplaceable human elements by removing administrative barriers for our providers.”
The automated detection system delivers immediate operational benefits that extend far beyond documentation efficiency. Real-time milestone capture enables instant communication to support teams, expediting room turnover activities and patient preparation processes. Surgical coordinators can dynamically adjust schedules to maximize facility utilization while minimizing patient wait times. Surgery schedulers are empowered to improve scheduling models and block allocation decisions, breaking the cycle of perpetual scheduling inaccuracies that have plagued surgical departments. Finally, the technology’s predictive capabilities enable proactive resource allocation and staff deployment, optimizing the entire perioperative workflow.
To learn more about SST’s automated surgical milestone detection and EHR integration, or to schedule a demonstration, visit http://www.surgicalsafety.com/.