Coordinating
Appropriate Care to the Critically Ill
Provena's eICU Connection is located at a remote
site in Joliet, IL that is staffed 24 hours a
day, seven days a week by intensivists under the
medical direction of Dr. Cowen. Provena
electronically connects 122 adult ICU beds
across six hospitals to its remote monitoring
center. Located in each patient room are digital
cameras, microphones, and other specific
software that allows full access to each ICU
patient's records and current physiological
data.
The remote
location, which Provena has dubbed the
"Clinical Operations Room" (COR),
holds a number of clinical workstations that
include a desk with six screens, which run
MEDITECH and VISICU software to show multiple
patients' clinical data, video capabilities for
patient assessments and family consults, a
real-time patient viewer, radiographic images,
and clinical reference data.
"Provena
has worked hard to be a paperless system by
using MEDITECH's Nursing Documentation and
Enterprise Medical Record (EMR) solutions, so
that the intensivists off-site have the complete
medical record in front of them at all
times," says Dr. Cowen.
By
continuously monitoring the patient's vitals,
appearance, and medical record, intensivists
have an upper hand in tracking the conditions of
their critically ill patients. "The job of
the eICU intensivists is to coordinate the
appropriate care when the on-call physician
cannot be present," says Dr. Cowen.
"The eICU staff then works in tandem with
the physician by keeping him or her up-to-date
on the patient's status, so those who need the
most detailed levels of care are now getting
it."
Meeting
Greater Demands through Remote Access
A study by Cap-Gemini, Ernst & Young has
shown that an eICU center like the one that
Provena has created can decrease patient
mortality by as much as 25 percent. Other
benefits anticipated with using an eICU center
include reduced complications for patients, as
well as shortened lengths of stay in the ICU.
This can also help hospitals to comply with
Leapfrog Group recommendations of
around-the-clock ICU physician coverage, a goal
that could not likely be reached without the use
of remote technologies.
"Through
video assessment, monitoring of vitals, and the
EMR, the remote ICU staff members are equipped
to detect the slightest change in a patient's
condition and can connect immediately to the
local hospital personnel, thus dramatically
improving ICU care," says Dr. Cowen.
"As the population ages there will be an
even greater demand for intensivists. Provena
took an ambitious step forward by creating COR,
and as a result, we're prepared to meet the
patient needs we have now, as well as the ones
that await in the future."
|
