February 12, 2008 – Telemedicine company Advanced ICU Care said today it expanded its ICU patient monitoring program to 24/7 care and monitoring at five of Parkview Health System’s hospitals in the Fort Wayne, IN area.
Parkview has designed an intensivist-hospitalist program at the bedside to care for its ICU patients, increasing the amount of bedside support these specialist physicians provide and expanding their in-patient coverage. Part of this local program, Advanced ICU Care’s intensivists and critical care nurses will now provide around-the-clock care and monitoring for Parkview’s 45 ICU beds, supporting the local physicians and nurses.
Parkview had previously implemented an eICU program that utilized both Advanced ICU Care’s clinicians in addition to its own intensivists and critical care nurses housed at an internal monitoring center. The hospital system now utilizes Advanced ICU Care’s complete eICU program, including 24/7 remote monitoring by board-certified intensivists and critical care nurses, telemedicine technology and a process improvement program to enable Parkview intensivists to spend their time at the patient’s bedside and facilitate the new care initiative.
“We have long used the eICU program to enhance patient care in the ICU, but we’ve developed a way to use it that allows our physicians and nurses to concentrate on providing excellent bedside care, rather than being split between our eICU center and the bedside,” said Julia Walker, BSN, RN, CCRN, hospitalist program manager for Parkview. “We believe this collaboration delivers the best possible care for our patients, providing an extra layer of care with 24/7 remote monitoring as well as expanded care at the bedside by a team of specialists.”
Advanced ICU Care now delivers its eICU program to 89 ICU beds located in eight hospitals across four states. Given the nationwide shortage of intensivists and clear data on improved patient outcomes associated with intensivist care, the company expects to continue to expand its program throughout the country.
For more information: www.icumedicine.com