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With Critical-Care Specialists in Short Supply... eICU offers High-Tech Solution
Colleagues,
As reported in Wall Street Journal ... Bleeding heavily after an emergency C-section last year, Jennifer Gale ended up in the intensive-care unit at Holmes Hospital in Melbourne, Fla. Throughout the night, the critical-care specialist on duty closely watched her vital signs, ordering additional units of blood until her condition stabilized.
But the doctor wasn't at her bedside—or even in the hospital ... he was remotely monitoring her and other patients in six intensive-care units in three different hospitals operated by Rockledge, Fla.-based health system Health First. The monitoring system, known as an eICU, uses two-way video cameras and software that tracks patients' vital signs and instantly registers any changes in lab test results or physical condition...
... Remote monitoring is offering a high-tech solution to the vexing problem facing a growing number of hospitals: how to care for the sickest patients amid a worsening shortage of intensivists, the critical-care specialists trained in caring for life-threatening injuries or illnesses. Studies show that mortality rates are 30% to 40% lower in hospitals where intensivists are providing round-the-clock care to prevent complications and minimize errors, but only about a third of patients in the ICU today receive care from an intensivist. The federal Department of Health and Human Services projects that demand for intensivists will continue to be greater than available supply in the next three decades...
... The leading provider of such systems, 11-year-old Visicu, was acquired last year by electronics giant Philips Electronics NV, and says that it now supplies the technology to 42 health systems covering 5,900 beds—about 10% of the nation's ICU beds. The systems cost $4 million to $5 million on average to install, and can cost $2 million more annually to staff and maintain. But hospitals that have used the systems say they soon pay for themselves in reduced costs, mortality and length of stay in the ICU. While they are especially useful in smaller communities and rural areas where about 35% of America's hospitals are located, they have also been shown to improve care and reduce mortality in large urban academic medical centers, where the remote doctors using monitoring programs can catch things that may be missed even by a trained eye in a well-staffed ICU...
Read on at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204488304574428960127...
See MedTech-IQ posts on ICU technology: https://medtechiq.ning.com/main/search/search?q=icu&page=1
ENJOY!
CC
As reported in Wall Street Journal ... Bleeding heavily after an emergency C-section last year, Jennifer Gale ended up in the intensive-care unit at Holmes Hospital in Melbourne, Fla. Throughout the night, the critical-care specialist on duty closely watched her vital signs, ordering additional units of blood until her condition stabilized.
But the doctor wasn't at her bedside—or even in the hospital ... he was remotely monitoring her and other patients in six intensive-care units in three different hospitals operated by Rockledge, Fla.-based health system Health First. The monitoring system, known as an eICU, uses two-way video cameras and software that tracks patients' vital signs and instantly registers any changes in lab test results or physical condition...
... Remote monitoring is offering a high-tech solution to the vexing problem facing a growing number of hospitals: how to care for the sickest patients amid a worsening shortage of intensivists, the critical-care specialists trained in caring for life-threatening injuries or illnesses. Studies show that mortality rates are 30% to 40% lower in hospitals where intensivists are providing round-the-clock care to prevent complications and minimize errors, but only about a third of patients in the ICU today receive care from an intensivist. The federal Department of Health and Human Services projects that demand for intensivists will continue to be greater than available supply in the next three decades...
... The leading provider of such systems, 11-year-old Visicu, was acquired last year by electronics giant Philips Electronics NV, and says that it now supplies the technology to 42 health systems covering 5,900 beds—about 10% of the nation's ICU beds. The systems cost $4 million to $5 million on average to install, and can cost $2 million more annually to staff and maintain. But hospitals that have used the systems say they soon pay for themselves in reduced costs, mortality and length of stay in the ICU. While they are especially useful in smaller communities and rural areas where about 35% of America's hospitals are located, they have also been shown to improve care and reduce mortality in large urban academic medical centers, where the remote doctors using monitoring programs can catch things that may be missed even by a trained eye in a well-staffed ICU...
Read on at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204488304574428960127...
See MedTech-IQ posts on ICU technology: https://medtechiq.ning.com/main/search/search?q=icu&page=1
ENJOY!
CC
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