John Muir Health Adds NPi Connect to ICU Workflow

John Muir Health has implemented the NPi-Connect connectivity hub from NeurOptics at Walnut Creek Medical Center, automating the transfer of pupillometry results into patients’ electronic health records. The system removes the need for critical care nurses to manually document multiple neurological assessment values after each test. Nurses complete an assessment with a handheld device, then dock it to send results directly to the EHR. John Muir Health has installed an NPi-Connect docking station in every patient room in its neurotrauma ICU, where assessments may be ordered as often as every hour.

Automated Neurological Documentation

NPi-Connect is designed for quantitative pupillometry, a method that measures how a patient’s pupils respond to light. The assessment provides data on left and right pupil size, constriction and dilation velocity and latency, and pupil reactivity measured through the Neurological Pupil index, or NPi.

The technology supports monitoring for patients with traumatic brain injury, stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, brain tumors, and other conditions that require frequent neurological checks. John Muir Health had already used quantitative pupillometry in its Neuroscience and Trauma Intensive Care Units, and the new hub connects those measurements with the medical record.

“Any time we can reduce the burden of charting on our clinical staff, patients benefit. NPi-Connect gives nurses back valuable time they can spend at the bedside caring for patients instead of entering data into the medical record.”

More Time At The Bedside

Before the implementation, nurses entered pupillometry values manually into the EHR after every assessment. For patients needing hourly assessments, the documentation work could build throughout a shift. The critical care team brought in NPi-Connect to improve documentation efficiency, reduce the possibility of transcription errors, and retain time for patient assessment, family communication, education, and care coordination.

The system makes the latest assessment results available in the medical record after the device is docked, allowing physicians to review information even when they are not at the bedside.

“These assessments are critically important, and having accurate information available immediately helps support clinical decision-making. Even when physicians aren't physically at the bedside, they can review the latest assessment results in the medical record and make informed decisions about patient care.”

A Simpler ICU Process

The hospital has focused the rollout on making the workflow accessible for nurses in the neurotrauma ICU. By placing a docking station in each patient room, staff can transfer the results after an assessment instead of waiting for a separate opportunity to complete EHR documentation.

“Previously, nurses could be interrupted and might have to wait until they had a free moment to enter the information. Now the data transfers automatically, allowing nurses to stay focused on caring for their patients.”

John Muir Health also expects fewer repetitive documentation tasks to help nurses devote more attention to complex clinical work, team communication, and family discussions.

“When nurses spend less mental energy on repetitive documentation, they have greater capacity to think critically about the patient's overall condition, collaborate with the interdisciplinary team, communicate with families, and anticipate the next steps in care.”

Technology Built Into Care

The rollout is part of John Muir Health’s effort to adopt tools that remove tasks from frontline care workflows rather than add them. The Walnut Creek Medical Center is the only designated Level II Trauma Center in Contra Costa County and a Comprehensive Stroke Center.

“The system is remarkably intuitive. From the start, we knew this would be one of our smoothest technology implementations. The feedback from our nurses has been overwhelmingly positive.”