St. Louis-based Advanced ICU Care Adds to Medical Staff

Company ups staffing to keep pace with the remote monitoring of hospital ICUs and expected future growth

ST. LOUIS (March 8, 2006) - Advanced ICU Care, a company providing high-quality, remote critical care to patients in community hospital intensive care units (ICUs), has recently added a number of critical care medicine physicians (intensivists) and nurses to its staff. The increase in staffing is keeping pace with the growth of the company, which is now remotely monitoring two hospital intensive care units from its operations center in St. Louis.

Through a sophisticated clinical management and communications technology platform, hospital ICUs are connected to Advanced ICU Care's eICU Operations Center, whose intensivists and nurses provide remote critical care to some of the hospitals' sickest patients. The eICU Operations Center currently staffs some 20-plus critical care medicine specialists, including eight intensivists and 15 critical care nurses.

Now part of Advanced ICU Care's medical team are board-certified Intensivists Dr. Robin Aguilar; Dr. Elisabeth Babb; Dr. Kenneth Bentley; Dr. Michael Cuipa; Dr. Frances Ntimba; and Dr. Rajesh Swaminathan. These physicians recently joined Dr. Dellice Dickhaus, Advanced ICU Care's medical director, and Dr. Isabelle Kopec, vice president of clinical services at Advanced ICU Care.

"Our growing intensivist team is very skilled clinically, and we're extremely pleased to be able to deliver this specialized critical care expertise to ICU patients at St. Mary's Health Center (in Jefferson City, Missouri) and Saint Clare's Hospital (in Weston, Wisconsin)," said Dr. Dickhaus. "Our intensivists also have expertise in physician education, hospital compliance programs, and developing and implementing protocol and care pathways - all of which will enhance patient care and provide ongoing support to the bedside caregivers," she added.

Christi Longnecker, RN, BSN, JD, also recently joined Advanced ICU Care's medical team as eICU nurse manager. Longnecker is responsible for a team of 14 critical care nurses, who - along with the intensivists - provide around-the-clock remote care and monitoring for up to 22 intensive care patients. Many of these nurses, both full- and part-time, are recent additions to Advanced ICU Care's staff.

"We're fortunate to be able to pull from such a large base of highly-trained intensivists and critical care nurses located here in St. Louis," remarked David Schopp, president of Advanced ICU Care. "Our skilled medical team, which is growing quickly, will continue to provide this level of life-saving critical care and oversight as our company offers ICU monitoring services to hospitals across the country."

About Advanced ICU Care

Advanced ICU Care is a medical service company that provides high-quality remote critical care to patients in the intensive care units (ICU) of community hospitals. Through a technology platform developed by VISICU, local hospital ICUs are linked with Advanced ICU Care's eICU® Operations Center in St. Louis, Missouri. This operations center is staffed by highly trained, board-certified intensivists (critical care medicine physicians) and critical care nurses who together have cared for more than 30,000 patients. Collectively, Advanced ICU Care's medical staff brings more than 75 years of clinical experience as well as expertise in hospital compliance initiatives, educational programs, and the development and implementation of protocol and care pathways.

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Donya Hengehold
(314) 276-4995
donya@dh-communications.com

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