St. Luke's Health System To Coordinate Care With Philips' New Virtual Intensive Care Program

WHAT:
St. Luke’s Health System will implement the Philips eICU Program to enhance the local care being provided by critical access hospitals affiliated with the St. Luke’s Health System. This program will use proven eICU technology developed by Philips Healthcare to provide remote critical care support to critical access and other hospitals that do not have designated critical care staff available 24/7. St. Luke’s is planning to fund this effort through a $11.7M Innovation Award from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), received by St. Luke’s earlier this year.

WHY:
St. Luke’s chose the Philips eICU Program based on its proven impact in reducing complications, shortening hospitals stays and saving lives.

“Studies show patients in ICUs managed by physicians trained in critical care have improved outcomes and decreased lengths of stay, but many smaller hospitals are unable to have critical care physicians on-site 24-hours a day,” said Brian Goltry, M.D., director of St. Luke’s eICU Program. “The eICU technology allows us to extend our critical care expertise virtually. We expect to see a reduction in mortality rates and patient lengths of stay as we roll out our program across the region.”

The eICU Program uses remote patient monitoring technology and clinical decision support at the bedside to link to an eICU center, enabling St. Luke’s critical care physicians and other specialists from St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center to evaluate, treat, stabilize and monitor patients in conjunction with providers and coordinators on-site. The eICU technology incorporates two-way video and clinical decision support, enabling the eICU staff to communicate more effectively with the bedside team and reduce the time between problem identification and intervention.

“When physicians and other providers communicate by means of telemedicine, with full access to all patient information including imaging and laboratory studies, we coordinate our care,” said David C. Pate, M.D., St. Luke’s Health System president and CEO. “This approach is very patient-centered in that we will be able to provide more of the care locally that previously would have required a patient transfer out of the region, resulting in an inconvenience and strain on family members, as well as increased cost to the system.