News Release

Electronic intensive care units (eICUs) effective in providing remote care, study presented at CHEST

Peer-Reviewed Publication

American College of Chest Physicians

An eICU uses telecommunications technology to diagnose and treat patients in the ICU remotely. Using two-way cameras, video monitors, microphones, and alarms to provide round-the-clock care for patients in ICUs, eICUs can provide care to patients in multiple hospitals, using the skills of intensive care physicians, called intensivists, and intensive care nurses.

Researchers at Northside Medical Center in Ohio studied results of interactions with 2,537 patients admitted to ICUs over a period of 2 years. Of these interactions, 1,310 patients were without eICU monitoring and 1,227 were monitored with eICU in addition to in-house monitoring of medical staff.

The eICU used intensivists and other health-care providers to give continuous monitoring and management from a remote location in two adult ICUs of a 375-bed community teaching hospital in the United States. Results were taken on the rate of falls, incidences of code blues, mortalities, and length of stays between the two periods before and after implementation of the eICU.

Specific outcomes encountered by patients with normal vs eICU monitoring showed code blues 54 vs 39, falls 1 vs 0, and overall mortality 90 vs 77. The median length of stay was 3.1 days without eICU monitoring and 3 days with eICU monitoring.

"Provision of high level intensive care in remote locations is challenging and e-ICU offers a unique approach to addressing this need," said Curtis Sessler, MD, FCCP and president-designate of the ACCP. "While the favorable trends in selected outcomes were encouraging, larger and more comprehensive studies are needed."

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CHEST 2013 is the 79th annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians, held October 26-31 in Chicago, Illinois. The ACCP is the global leader in clinical chest medicine, representing 18,700 members who provide patient care in the areas of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine in the United States and throughout the world. The mission of the ACCP is to promote the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chest diseases through education, communication, and research. For information about the ACCP, visit the ACCP website at http://www.chestnet.org, or follow the ACCP on Facebook and Twitter and the meeting hashtag, #CHEST2013.


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