Remote Monitoring In ICU Improves Care, Reduces Costs
By Wendy Grafius, contributing writer
Mayo Clinic implements remote monitoring system in ICU as proactive way to care for patients
The Mayo Clinic Health System, based in Rochester, MN, has implemented 24/7 remote monitoring in the intensive care units in six of its hospitals with a new program designed to improve care and shorten hospital stays. Via in-room computers, video cameras, and audio monitors, “Enhanced Critical Care” enables intensivists in the Rochester operations center to continuously review vitals, test results, and imaging exams, working with the local care team to detect changes in patient status and support decision making for care options.
Founded in 1889, the Mayo Clinic has served as a model for medical practice throughout the world, becoming the world’s first group medical practice in which teams of experts in various fields collaborated to benefit the patient. Today, 900 providers in an extensive family of clinics, hospitals, and health care facilities serve over 70 communities in Iowa, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Widely considered the finest multi-specialty clinic in the world, the non-profit Mayo Clinic is known for medical care, research, and education, attracting patients, researchers, and medical students from around the globe.
Available at Mayo Clinic Health System locations: Austin, Albert Lea, Fairmont, and Mankato, MN, and Eau Claire and La Crosse, WI, Enhanced Critical Care is “like having an extra set of eyes on every patient,” said Dany Abou Abdallah, M.D., a pulmonologist and director of the critical care unit in Eau Claire. “With this program, operations center nurses and physicians continuously review patients’ vital signs and other data. The minute they notice a potential problem, they can alert the local care team.” As opposed to transferring a patient to the Rochester facility for a second opinion, computerized monitoring improves patient and family satisfaction with a higher level of care at a reduced cost due to shorter, and local, hospital stays. Private, and secure, the service is offered at no additional cost to the patient.
About 10 percent of intensive care unit beds in the U.S. have remote monitoring systems. A study by the University of Massachusetts found that electronic intensive care units reduce the incidence of intensive care deaths by 20 percent and the length of intensive care stays by 32 percent, as published by the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2011. “This is a more proactive way to take care of patients,” said Sean Caples, D.O., a critical care specialist in Rochester and program medical director. “The way we’re delivering care is changing, but our end goal remains the same: providing the best care possible to patients. We’re taking advantage of new technology to help us do that.”
SOURCE: Mayo Clinic