Local Hospital Improves Heath Care With 'High Fidelity Mannequins'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A local hospital is getting some high-tech help to keep workers on their toes.
He looks like any other patient at St. Mary Medical Center: he's wearing a flimsy gown and lying in a hospital bed, but he's only plastic, and his job is to let healthcare workers practice.
"We call him Mike. He also breathes, you can see they have chest rise, he blinks, he'll talk to us, he has pulses, you can do different procedures to him, all of this is to create scenarios that people would see in real time on the floor," explained Missy Halligan, the hospital's clinical simulation program coordinator.
She says the high-fidelity mannequins are common in teaching and university hospitals, but unusual at local facilities.
St. Mary has a family of four: Mike, Noel, and two babies; giving health care workers the chance to keep up and keep sharp.