High-tech eICU makes intensive care even more intensive

Supporting good doctors in making complex decisions is the goal of the high-tech electronic Intensive Care Unit (eICU), according to Bob Merwin, CEO of Mills-Peninsula.

Merwin is helping plan Bay Area implementation of this Sutter Health initiative, designed to improve patient safety and provide an extra layer of round-the-clock vigilance in ICUs throughout the 26-hospital not-for-profit network.

Developed by doctors at Sentara Healthcare in Norfolk, VA, the eICU uses high-resolution video cameras to enable physician specialists called "intensivists" to visually monitor critical care patients from miles away 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The result has been as much as a 20 percent decrease in mortality, according to Sentara, one of the first to implement an eICU.

Sutter General Hospital in Sacramento opened the first eICU in our network January 2003, Merwin said. The new technology is expected to be ready for the Bay Area this year. Plans are to serve
Mills-Peninsula and other Sutter affiliates with one eICU site in San Francisco.

"The American Medical Association found that round-the-clock ICU coverage by intensivists is key to better patient outcomes," Merwin said. "However, these doctors are in extremely short supply. The eICU allows us to bridge that gap."

Here is how it works:

Intensive care units will be equipped with a video camera in each ICU patient room and connected to remote monitoring systems.

Our onsite physicians, critical care nurses and other professional staff will continue to provide intensive bedside care just as they do today.

Intensivists and highly trained nurses will staff the eICUs.
n eICU staff will be linked to hospital staff by voice, video and data technology.

As requested by each patient's attending physician, the eICU care team will closely collaborate with on-site professionals in providing immediate supervision and care management.

Offsite intensivists will be immediately available to intervene in emergencies when a patient's attending physician is
not available and has requested
eICU support.

"I'm happy that Mills-Peninsula is helping introduce this exciting new patient safety initiative," Merwin said. "It's an investment that makes a lot of sense, and I look forward to the benefit for our patients."

For more information about how you can support the eICU patient safety initiative, contact the Hospital Foundation at 696 5990.