ICU Monitoring System for Critical Care Patients

A technology-based system employs early-warning software and advanced video and electronic monitoring to help save the lives of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU).

From a centralized facility called eICU, intensivists and nurses monitor and care for ICU patients through a high-fidelity network likened to air traffic control. Proprietary software is used to actively manage patients, provide evidence-based treatment guidelines, and electronically connect the patient to the doctor. The system enables hospitals to standardize ICU care across multiple hospitals and to leverage scarce intensivist talent.

Studies point to around-the-clock coverage by intensivists as the key to better patient outcomes in the ICU. The eICU system enables intensivists and specially trained nurses to provide this kind of care seven days a week. The system was recently implemented in the Sutter Health Medical Center (Sacramento, CA, USDA), where it has already been credited with helping to save the lives of several patients. The eICU system was developed by Visicu, Inc. (Baltimore, MD, USA).

"One physician has given full credit to eICU monitoring for immediately recognizing a life-threatening condition in his patient who needed to return to surgery,” noted John Mesic, chief medical officer of Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra Region. "Physicians whose patients are currently being cared for by our ICU and eICU staff are applauding the system's merits.”





Related Links:
Sutter Health Med. Center
Visicu