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ST. LOUIS (September 6, 2007) – Advanced ICU Care, a medical service company that connects critical care physicians (intensivists) to hospital ICU patients using telemedicine technology, announced today that it has expanded its intensivist coverage to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to increase the continuity of intensivist care.
“This is great news for our patients,” said Larry Hegland, M.D., chief medical officer of Saint Clare’s Hospital. “There are simply not enough intensivists in the U.S. to provide 24/7 coverage in every hospital, but Advanced ICU Care’s program allows us to provide this level of care to our patients.”
Advanced ICU Care intensivists, located at the company’s eICU® Operations Center in St. Louis, Missouri, utilize eICU technology ― which combines clinical management software with patient data and video capabilities ― to provide around-the-clock care and monitoring for ICU patients. The company’s intensivist coverage level represents a significant departure from many other eICU programs where intensivists are typically on staff 12-19 hours out of each day, with additional coverage by nurses, physician assistants and nurse practitioners.
The 24/7 coverage will allow for eICU intensivists to immediately address deteriorating patients and respond to urgent issues at anytime. Around-the-clock staffing will also augment communications between eICU intensivists and attending physicians and hospital clinical staff, allowing for direct conversations during the morning hours when attending physicians make their rounds or when clinical shift changes occur.
This enhancement to intensivist coverage levels is being made as Advanced ICU Care grows its intensivist staffing capabilities. The company, which launched its first two hospital clients in January 2006, has grown its medical staff 80% in the last year, while adding multiple client hospitals.
“Our goal is to improve access to critical care specialists for all ICU patients, thereby enhancing patient care and safety. By delivering continual, 24/7 intensivist coverage, we are accomplishing this,” said Mary Jo Gorman, M.D., chief executive officer of Advanced ICU Care.
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 registered trademark of VISICU, Inc.