Around-The-Clock Intensive Care Through Telemedicine

By Karla Paris

Metroplex Hospital utilizes telemedicine technology to monitor its patients’ conditions every minute of the day.

Independent studies demonstrate 24/7 intensivist monitoring significantly improves patient outcomes and patient safety in the ICU. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) indicates implementation of a telemonitoring program was associated with reduced adjusted odds of mortality and reduced hospital length of stay, as well as improvements in best practice adherence and lower rates of preventable complications.

Metroplex Hospital in Killeen, TX wanted to improve its own ICU best practices and recently took steps to introduce telemedicine into its ICU system. With the installation, a Metroplex physician or staffer can work directly with another physician hundreds of miles away about a patient sharing the same medical data. The new system, from Advanced ICU Care, includes a wall-mounted, high-resolution camera and monitor in each of the 10 ICU patient rooms, keeping critical care doctors and nurses available 24/7.

In August of last year, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) launched a first-of-its-kind telemedicine partnership with Advanced ICU Care. The partnership with the nation's largest tele-intensive care unit (ICU) provider was made possible in part by the state of South Carolina, which provided a $12 million grant to MUSC for telemedicine services, including tele-ICU services. This funding supported the adoption of tele-ICU care to community and rural hospitals, helping to change what's possible for South Carolina's critically ill patients.

Advanced ICU Care is a private provider of tele-ICU services, that has helped many ICU’s reduce the number of patient transfers with partner hospitals allowing hospitals to keep patients closer to their families and home. Programs using the Advanced ICU Care model average a reduced mortality of nearly 40 percent, increased patient growth of nearly 17 percent, and increased patient throughput by nearly 25 percent. This allows hospitals to serve more patients without adding beds.

With 148 acute-care beds in Killeen, 60 psychiatric care beds in the nearby Metroplex Behavioral Health Center, and 25 beds at Rollins Brook Community Hospital in Lampasas, Metroplex Hospital provides care for more than 125,000 patients each year. The 245-bed, multi-campus facility is a member of the Adventist Health System, which manages 42 hospitals and employs over 55,000. Adventist Health System is the 10th largest hospital system in the country.

SOURCE: Metroplex Health System