Remote Monitoring System Adds

a Second Set of Eyes in ICU

PARSONS, Kan., Dec. 18, 2008 – In the Labette Health Intensive Care Unit, where doctors and nurses tend to the hospital’s sickest patients, things can get really busy. Now, with the touch of a button, Labette Health staff who are called to a crisis can instantly summon a remote team of seasoned critical-care specialists in Wichita to keep an eye on their other ICU patients.

Labette Health is the first independent hospital to go live with eCare-ICU, a round-the-clock critical-care monitoring system offered through the Via Christi Health System in Wichita. The system allows a team of critical-care physicians and nurses to constantly monitor even subtle changes in a patient’s condition, such as heart rate or oxygen values. Its high-resolution video capabilities even allow the Wichita team to read the labels on medication bags, said Kathi McKinney, RN, Labette Health ICU director.

“This technology in no way replaces anything that our ICU nurses do to care for their patients,” McKinney said. “However with eCare-ICU, there is additional patient monitoring, trending data, and more information that will help prevent complications. When we’re called to another ICU room to care for a patient, we can literally push a button and ask them to watch our patients. They respond within seconds.”

Labette Health’s five-bed ICU is also the first hospital in the program to include two-way video communication between Labette Health staff and the monitoring team. This allows an additional level of collaboration between Labette Health staff and remote teams, according to Dr. Neil Goodloe, Labette Health hospitalist.

“It’s the latest standard of care,” he said. “Critical care is one of the fastest-changing specialties in medicine, and it’s very helpful to be able to instantly get another opinion when lives are at stake,” Dr. Goodloe said. He added that the technology even allows the remote team to participate in multidisciplinary rounds three days a week.

According to a recent Via Christi study, recent patient-care initiatives that include eCare-ICU have saved more than 250 lives since the program began in April of 2006.

At night, when a patient is more likely to experience a crisis, the remote team is led by an intensivist. Intensivists are board-certified physicians who also are certified in the subspecialty of critical-care medicine. According to a recent study, there are fewer than 6,000 intensivists practicing in the United States, and only 15 percent of intensive-care units have a dedicated intensivist on staff.

The Labette Health installation also includes another first for the system, a mobile video cart that can be used to effectively add a sixth ICU room or it can be used in the hospital’s emergency room. The video cameras are used to observe and monitor the patient but do not record patient data, McKinney said.

“This is the standard for the high-quality level of care our patients deserve,” said William Mahoney, Labette Health President and CEO. He said that a team of Labette Health physicians, nurses and administrators evaluated other remote monitoring systems before choosing eCare-ICU. In addition to the security of a second set of eyes watching over Labette Health’s sickest patients, the system will provide additional benefits, he said.

“Patients’ costs will not increase because of eCare,” he said. “In fact, eCare will allow us to keep more patients here, so the costs of families having to leave town to visit their loved ones will decrease.”

If the idea of a high-tech camera in a patient’s room seems cold and impersonal, human elements such as respect for the patient’s privacy are still an important part of patient care at Labette Health. Just as healthcare professionals are trained to knock before entering a patient’s room, the system allows the remote team’s cameras to “knock” before entering, McKinney said,

“Before Wichita activates the camera in a room, a signal alerts the patient, family and the staff that they are about to enter.  If it is not a good time, all we have to do is to let them know and they will not turn on the camera,” she said.