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For Immediate Release
ST. LOUIS (Jan. 18, 2006) – Advanced ICU Care, a medical service company that connects critical care physicians (intensivists) to hospital ICU patients via sophisticated technology, announced today that it has closed on $2.5 million in funding, exceeding the company funding goal of $1.7 million.
Investment Success
The investment was co-led by Catalyst Capital Management (a private investment firm located in Chicago) and Arboretum Ventures (a venture capital firm located in Ann Arbor, Mich.) and also included angel investors from Virginia and Chicago.
The funds will enable Advanced ICU Care to begin expanding the company’s innovative intensivist services to additional hospitals across the country. Advanced ICU Care utilizes a clinical management and communications technology called the eICU ® system, which allows for the remote monitoring of patients by intensivists and critical care nurses. The system delivers intensivist services to patients in multiple hospitals on a continuous basis from an eICU operations center in St. Louis.
“We are very pleased to engage these forward-thinking investors,” says David N. Schopp, president of Advanced ICU Care. “Together, we will be able to offer specialized intensivist care to ICU patients in hospitals who otherwise wouldn’t have access to this life-saving level of medical care.”
Mike Mikolajczyk, managing director of Catalyst Capital Management, says his company was attracted to Advanced ICU Care’s venture because of the need the company is addressing in healthcare. “This group is serving a clear, critical and large market by bringing together a very specialized labor pool with outstanding and proven software, and blending relevant clinical, healthcare and entrepreneurial skills,” he says. “We are excited by the opportunity for Advanced ICU Care to redefine the paradigm for critical care for hospitals.”
Tim Petersen, managing partner of Arboretum Ventures, agrees. “Arboretum is always on the lookout for companies that are targeting rapidly growing markets, led by experienced management teams,” he says. “With the growing body of evidence demonstrating that Intensive Care Units are best staffed by intensivists, we believe the market for using eICU programs is about to take off. We are very pleased to join Advanced ICU Care and Catalyst Capital Management in helping to move this exciting company forward.”
Live ICU Monitoring Underway Tuesday, Jan. 10
Advanced ICU Care on Jan. 10 began monitoring ICU patients at St. Marys Health Center in Jefferson City, Mo., and at Saint Clare’s Hospital in Weston, Wis. The company provides 24-hour, real-time monitoring of patients to evaluate when interventions are necessary and alert the appropriate medical professionals for response.
Marilyn Russell, R.N., director of ICU at St. Marys Health Center, says that the nurses there are thrilled with the new system. “They want to provide the highest level of care for their patients and realize that this partnership allows us to add a new level of safety for those in our care,” she says. “It also gives us access to another set of highly trained eyes (the Advanced ICU Care nurses and intensivists) to enhance our nurses’ efforts at the bedside,” she says.
Dr. Larry Hegland, chief medical officer at Saint Clare’s Hospital, says that safety was also a key selling point in the partnership between his hospital and Advanced ICU Care. “It would be extremely difficult to provide 24/7 coverage for patients in a hospital ICU because you just don’t have enough physicians or intensivists across the country,” he says. “The service Advanced ICU Care brings to the table allows us to provide an increased level of care that markedly improves patient safety.”
In fact, because of the level of care Saint Clare’s can now provide through its relationship with Advanced ICU Care, the hospital will become one of the few in the state of Wisconsin that is compliant with Leapfrog, a voluntary program that promotes quality and safety of healthcare for Americans.
Advanced ICU Care is the first private group to bring intensivists to hospitals through the eICU technology. The company is the brainchild of experienced physicians and healthcare managers, and was formed in response to the nationwide shortage of intensivists: there are only 6,000 intensivists to care for nearly 5 million ICU patients and only 20 percent of the country’s ICUs have intensivists on staff.
The eICU technology, offering an enhanced level of care for some of the sickest patients, has been credited with saving lives and dramatically reducing hospital length of stay, according to Critical Care Medicine 2004; 32:31-38.
In addition to offering intensivists through ICU monitoring, Advanced ICU Care also provides clients with a full package of quality improvement processes and guidance, consulting services and educational opportunities, such as participating in grand rounds and offering various educational meetings for physicians and nurses.
The company plans to be monitoring more than 60 ICU beds from the St. Louis operations center by the end of 2006 and to grow rapidly over the next five years. Currently, several potential clients throughout the Midwest are considering Advanced ICU Care services and technology, according to Schopp.
About Catalyst Capital Management, LLC
Catalyst Capital Management, LLC (www.catalyst-cap.com)
is a Chicago-based private investment firm that invests in early and
later stage companies in the business and healthcare and information
service industries.
About Arboretum Ventures
Arboretum Ventures (www.arboretumvc.com)
is a venture capital firm targeting investments in early-stage life
science companies. The firm makes seed and early-stage investments,
often representing the founder’s first professional investor.
About St. Marys Health Center
St. Marys Health Center (www.stmarys-jeffcity.com)
was the first hospital in Jefferson City, Mo., established in 1905
by the Franciscan Sisters of Mary. A member of the SSM Health Care
System, St. Marys is a faith-based, full-service hospital with 167
beds, extensive cardiology and open-heart surgery, a maternal and child
care center, an oncology center and a network of primary care clinics,
as well as Villa Marie Skilled Nursing Facility.
About Saint Clare’s Hospital
Saint Clare’s Hospital (www.ministryhealth.org), part of the Ministry Health Care System, includes a 107-bed hospital and a medical office building. Ministry Health Care built the medical center to meet current healthcare demand and it will have the capability to rapidly and cost-effectively expand to meet future growth for medical services. The facility opened on October 4, 2005.
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eICU ® is a registered trademark of VISICU, Inc.
The Leapfrog Group is an initiative driven by organizations that buy healthcare who are working to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality and affordability of healthcare for Americans. It is a voluntary program aimed at mobilizing employer purchasing power to alert America’s health industry that big leaps in health care safety, quality and customer value will be recognized and rewarded (www.leapfroggroup.org).