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Memorial Hospital launches Advanced ICU Care program

Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, Miss., launched the Advanced ICU Care virtual ICU program this summer to enhance care and safety for patients in its 26-bed ICU. Serving the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Memorial is one of the most comprehensive medical facilities in the state.

The program supports Memorial's onsite intensivists and other clinical staff in providing 24/7 evidence-based care to further enhance its high-quality care at the bedside. The program also provides additional resources, such as advanced clinical management technology.

Oconomowoc Memorial goes live with Advanced ICU Care program

ProHealth Care's Oconomowoc Memorial implemented the Advanced ICU Care program in its 11 ICU beds this month. Waukesha Memorial, also a ProHealth Care hospital, launched the program in its 24-bed ICU this summer. Located in southeastern Wisconsin, ProHealth Care is a regional leader in critical care medicine, committed to bringing advanced technology and a multidisciplinary, evidence-based approach to care.

The system selected the program for its two hospitals to enhance quality of care, support the system's existing intensivists and other critical care clinicians in providing best practices to patients, and achieve compliance with The Leapfrog Group's ICU Physician Staffing Safety Standard. For more, click here.

Advanced ICU Care welcomes Toby Thomas to new role as president

Toby Thomas has been named president of Advanced ICU Care, taking over some of the responsibilities of retiring President and COO David Schopp, a co-founder of Advanced ICU Care with 30 years of experience in the healthcare field. In his new role, Thomas, who has been serving on Advanced ICU Care's board of directors for the past two years, will oversee sales and marketing, finance and human resources, in addition to overall strategic direction and operations support. All of Advanced ICU Care's stakeholders share Thomas' enthusiasm for accelerating and sustaining growth.

With nearly 20 years financial and operational experience in the healthcare and technology sectors, Thomas previously served as chief executive officer of Autism Spectrum Therapies, a provider of comprehensive services for individuals with autism. Before that, Thomas was chief financial officer for Cogent Healthcare, Inc., a leading provider of inpatient management services with operations in 17 states.

Long-time Advanced ICU Care Medical Group client hospital SSM DePaul Health Center wins HealthGrades award for third straight year

SSM DePaul Health Center has won a HealthGrades award for "Specialty Excellence: Critical Care" for the third year in a row. Located in St. Louis, SSM DePaul Health Center is a 478-bed, full-service hospital and a member of SSM Health Care-St. Louis. Advanced ICU Care Medical Group/Critical Care Services has partnered with DePaul since 1991 to provide 24/7 bedside intensivist care for its 30 ICU beds.

To determine the award for DePaul -- and nine other Missouri hospitals for 2011 -- HealthGrades analyzed and assigned its star ratings for various medical conditions or procedures. The overall ranking for each specialty area is based on the ratings of one or more medical conditions or procedures (e.g., heart attack, coronary bypass surgery).

HealthGrades is the country's leading healthcare ratings organization, providing ratings and profiles of hospitals, nursing homes and physicians to consumers, corporations, health plans and hospitals. Millions rely on HealthGrades independent ratings to make healthcare decisions.

DePaul was selected for the HealthGrades "Specialty Excellence: Critical Care" award also in 2010 and 2009.

Where to find us ... featured presentations and events

SCCM Critical Care Congress
Dr. Elizabeth Cowboy to highlight critical care medicine research

Advanced ICU Care Virtual ICU Medical Director Elizabeth Raitz Cowboy, M.D., MSOD, FCCP, will present research on evidence-based ICU best practices at the Society of Critical Care Medicine's 40th Critical Care Congress, held January 15-19, 2011, in San Diego, Ca. Abstracts that will be presented and discussed include:

• "Deep Venous Thrombosis Challenges of Baseline Data Availability, Management and Ongoing Treatment of At-Risk ICU Patients."
• "Sweetening Effects of the NICE-SUGAR Study in American ICUs."
• "Multi-center Review of Rapid Stress Ulcer Assessment and Treatment of At-Risk Patients in 18 American ICUs."

These abstracts highlight the use of evidence-based best practices in the ICU to improve patient outcomes and support continuous quality improvements, as well as the importance of investigative work in critical care medicine. The abstracts will also be published in the December 2010 supplement to the Society's journal, Critical Care Medicine.

IHI 22nd Annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care

Advanced ICU Care will be an exhibitor at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's 22nd annualNational Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care on December 5-8, 2010, in Orlando, Fl. Come see us at booth #720!

ACNP 2010 National Clinical Conference
Tifuh Amba spoke on nurse practitioners and the virtual ICU

At October's American College of Nurse Practitioners' (ACNP) 2010 National Clinical Conference in Tampa, Fla., Tifuh Amba, RN, MSN, CCRN, ACNP-BC, an acute care nurse practitioner with Advanced ICU Care, discussed the new career opportunities virtual intensive care units have created for nurse practitioners and the improved outcomes for patients when nurse practitioners are added to virtual ICU teams.

"The virtual ICU method allows intensive care nurse practitioners to treat patients in ICUs around the country," Amba said. "The nurse practitioners work alongside the intensivists and serve as an extra layer of care and safety."

As the population ages, the role of acute care nurse practitioners has become even more important inside today's hospitals. These specialized nurses, which represent 5 percent of all nurses, have advanced training to allow them to care for the sickest patients -- and studies show their roles have expanded tremendously over the last five years.

In her presentation, Amba illustrated how acute care nurse practitioners have allowed Advanced ICU Care to enhance the presence of critical care experts available to patients 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The use of these specialized nurses has also helped increase the collaborative care patients receive and -- along with Advanced ICU Care's intensivists -- decreased the fragmentation of patient care in traditional ICUs.

"Acute care nurse practitioners are valuable members of our team who support our commitment to exceptional patient care," said Mary Jo Gorman, M.D., MBA, co-founder and chief executive officer for Advanced ICU Care. "Together, our intensivists and nurse practitioners work to provide our client hospitals with the best possible care and safety for their patients." For more, click here.

The Bottom Line

Hospitals collaborate on best practices at Advanced ICU Care's first client roundtable
Event features keynote speaker Jeff Goldsmith

Advanced ICU Care sponsored its first client roundtable and appreciation event Sept. 15 and 16 at its headquarters in St. Louis, Mo. The event was attended by five hospital clients -- CEOs and clinicians alike -- and included a day-long meeting where clients could discuss evidence-based ICU care and process improvements and share ideas.

Through customized benchmark reports on ventilator days, low tidal volume ventilation, DVT prophylaxis, stress ulcer prophylaxis and other accepted practices, the virtual ICU program tracks data and drives process improvement. For instance, at St. Mary's Health Center, respiratory, pulmonology and Advanced ICU Care clinicians have collaborated to lower tidal volume ventilator settings for patients with adult respiratory distress syndrome and acute lung injury. The hospital has consistently met best practices in this area (tidal volumes of less than 6.5 ml/kg ideal body weight), with 100 percent compliance with this best practice in the second quarter of 2010. At the client event, ongoing initiatives towards achieving best practices such as these were discussed.

"We couldn't be happier with the way the event turned out," said Mary Jo Gorman, M.D., MBA, co-founder and chief executive officer, Advanced ICU Care. "All of the participants provided us with excellent advice and feedback about how to continue to work together as effectively as possible for the most important people we serve -- our patients."

The event also included a tour of the company's monitoring center, and a keynote address from Jeff Goldsmith, Ph.D., president, Health Futures. Goldsmith -- one of the nation's foremost health industry analysts, specializing in corporate strategy, trend analysis, health policy and emerging technologies -- addressed Advanced ICU Care clients about the impact of health reform and its embrace of telemedicine. Goldsmith pointed out in his talk that doctors' work priorities are shifting, and 43 percent of doctors say they would be interested in working only part time, a notion that Advanced ICU Care's model supports to enhance doctors' quality of life. In a survey completed after the event, one client said Goldsmith's presentation was the best thing about the visit. "I really liked the keynote address," the client wrote. "I have read Jeff Goldsmith's books and really enjoyed it." Goldsmith's visit to St. Louis was also covered in a St. Louis Beacon story on Sept. 17.

All of the clients surveyed said they would return to future roundtables and invite other members of their staff to attend. Most said they found networking with each other to be the most valuable part of the visit, and they enjoyed having face-to-face contact with Advanced ICU Care staff and leadership.