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Donya Hengehold
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For immediate release

ST. LOUIS, MO, May 15, 2008 – Each year, more than five million Americans are admitted to ICUs.  But just a fraction of those are treated by doctors who have special training in critical care, called intensivists – even though care by intensivists could save as many as 54,000 lives in the ICU annually. These statistics take on special significance this month as May marks National Critical Care Awareness and Recognition Month.

Both private and government sectors are exploring ways we can optimize the delivery of care in the ICU. One of the companies at the forefront of this venture is Advanced ICU Care. Using telemedicine technology that combines clinical management software with real-time video feeds and patient data, Advanced ICU Care’s intensivists and critical care nurses monitor hospital ICU patients from a centralized location 24/7, dramatically improving patient care and safety.

In the two years since implementing Advanced ICU Care’s program, St. Mary’s Health Center in Jefferson City, Missouri has seen cardiac arrests in the ICU plunge by 67%.  The number of ICU patients who left the hospital alive improved by 24%. 

“This collaboration enhances our ability to provide the best possible care for our patients, providing an extra layer of care with 24/7 remote monitoring,” said Janet Pestle, RN, MSN, cardiovascular service line director at St. Mary’s.

Mary Jo Gorman, MD, MBA, CEO of Advanced ICU Care, says that improving patient safety is at the heart of the program. “Our focus is on connecting intensivists to ICU patients to enhance their care and safety through constant monitoring and ongoing initiatives to improve quality.” She adds that the program is also a way for community hospitals to supplement their clinical teams with critical care specialists.

Indeed, a nationwide shortage of intensivists is affecting hospitals across the country.  This shortage is expected to increase as the aging U.S. population puts further stress on the demand side.

Many hospitals see telemedicine as a way to extend scarce critical care expertise in the community. Saint Alphonsus Medical Center in Boise, Idaho has partnered with Advanced ICU Care to provide 24/7 remote monitoring for its 22-bed ICU, supporting its local intensivist and critical care nursing teams. Through a government grant, Saint Alphonsus will use telemedicine to deliver different types of specialists, including intensivists, to hospitals in the greater community.

The program also allows hospitals to expand patient access to other specialties. “With Advanced ICU Care’s 24/7 intensivist program we have expanded our service lines; shortened actual patient length of stay far more than predicted; and met the needs of our patients, our physicians and our mission,” said Larry Hegland, MD, chief medical officer of Saint Clare’s Hospital in Weston, Wisconsin, which also uses the Advanced ICU Care program.

“We see every day how staffing shortages affect care, particularly in the ICU,” said Gorman. “Always a number one priority, hospitals are working harder than ever to improve care processes and enhance patient safety.  Programs like these that focus on process improvement, along with a way to leverage scarce resources, will help us provide safer and more consistent care for our sickest patients. This is a reason in itself to celebrate Critical Care Awareness and Recognition Month.”

Critical Care Facts

Intensivist Shortage
Demand for intensivists is expected to outstrip supply by 22% in 2020.  Other estimates are even more sobering: a 2006 report to Congress showed that demand could be 129% above the current supply by 2020 if intensivist care were to rise to more optimal levels.

Acuity
Mortality rates in patients admitted to the ICU average 10% to 20% in most hospitals.

Intensivist and tele-intensivist facts:
-- 2006 data from ICU patients in 68 hospitals employing eICU® technology show that the average severity-adjusted ICU mortality rate was 27% better than the national average. 
-- Other studies have shown mortality rates of 6.04% in ICUs with intensivist staffing compared with 14.4% when an attending physician provides care.

Cost of Care
Even though ICU patients only occupy one of every 10 hospital beds, they account for almost 30% of a hospital’s acute care costs. Overall, they receive more than 18 million days of care in the ICU each year.

Intensivist and tele-intensivist facts:
-- Up to $13 million in annual hospital cost savings can be realized when care is delivered by an intensivist-directed multiprofessional team.
-- One study shows telemedicine intensivist staffing models reduce variable costs per case by 24.6%, attributable to a decrease in patient length of stay and lower daily ICU ancillary costs.

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 experienced clinicians, supported by cutting-edge telemedicine technology, and a process improvement program, Advanced ICU Care provides continuous ICU patient monitoring and improved care and safety outcomes to critically ill patients across the country.  Hospital ICUs are linked with Advanced ICU Care’s eICU Operations Center in St. Louis, Missouri through a technology platform developed by VISICU, allowing Advanced ICU Care’s board-certified intensivists (critical care medicine physicians) and critical care nurses to monitor hospital ICU patients from a central location. Founded to improve access to critical care expertise, deliver best practices to patients by leveraging telemedicine technology, and establish intensivists as the standard of care, the Advanced ICU Care program delivers around-the-clock critical care specialists, dramatically improving patient care. For more information, visit:  www.icumedicine.com

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eICU is a trademark of VISICU, Inc..