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For Immediate Release
ST. LOUIS (June 22, 2006) – Amid a nationwide nursing shortage, one St. Louis healthcare company has an enviable position – that of a nursing waiting list. Advanced ICU Care, a company that connects critical care medicine physicians and nurses to hospital intensive care units via telemedicine, is fortunate not only to be fully staffed with experienced nurses, but also to have a number of them at the ready once the company again increases staffing.
Advanced ICU Care’s nurses and intensivists use remote computer monitoring, which keeps track of patients’ vital signs, medications, and laboratory results. They are also connected to hospital ICU patients and their care providers through bedside cameras and microphones. This eICU® technology, providing an extra level of care to hospital ICU patients, has been proven to help save lives and reduce ICU stay.
“What makes the job here so appealing for nurses is that they are able to provide an extra layer of care to the hospital’s sickest patients while staying on the cusp of cutting-edge medical technology,” says Christi Longnecker, RN, Advanced ICU Care’s director of nursing.
Indeed, keeping up with the latest technological advances in medicine is one key factor in recruiting nurses, says Longnecker. Nurses at Advanced ICU Care are able to use technology to help care for patients, monitoring their condition around-the-clock and alerting the nurses at the bedside when potential complications may arise. Averaging 20 years of critical care experience, Advanced ICU Care nurses act as a resource for the on-site staff, answering their questions and providing additional support.
This additional layer of support that Advanced ICU Care provides is helping with nursing satisfaction as well as recruiting and retention efforts at the hospital ICUs it monitors. While Marilyn Russell, ICU director of nursing at St. Mary’s Health Center in Jefferson City, Missouri, saw improvements in nursing turnover from 2004 to 2005 (from 40% in ’04 down to 30% in ‘05), she says 2006 so far has been markedly different. Since the hospital began using the Advanced ICU Care eICU® program in January of this year, first-quarter nursing turnover in her unit decreased to 0%.
“This model of care has created a mentoring environment for our nurses, helping to improve performance for our less experienced nurses and strengthen clinical skills for junior and senior nurses alike,” she says. “Our nurses are pleased with the new system, which offers not only another set of highly-trained eyes, but also a supportive and educational environment, helping them to provide the best level of care possible for their patients.”
Helping to provide the highest quality care for patients is one of the reasons Advanced ICU Care’s nursing environment is so appealing. While Longnecker says curiosity and word-of-mouth are what brings many of the nurses to Advanced ICU Care’s door, what keeps them there is the opportunity to do a job they love, taking care of patients, in a way that doesn’t leave them physically exhausted at the end of their shift.
Caring for critically ill patients can be an arduous job. Not only is there a considerable amount of physical work at the bedside, but providing quality care can also take an emotional toll on the nurses, who want to provide the very best care and support for patients and their families.
Nurses at Advanced ICU Care find they’re placing less physical stress on their bodies while “virtually” caring for their patients. While the job requirements are many, the job itself doesn’t include many of the physical responsibilities that often accompany traditional critical care nursing positions.
Located in St. Louis, Missouri, Advanced ICU Care is fortunate to be able to draw from a base of highly trained critical care medical professionals, says David Schopp, president and chief operating officer of Advanced ICU Care. “Through our experienced nursing staff, we can provide on-going guidance, support and education for the hospitals’ on-site staff while enhancing patient care through this life-saving care model.”
As Advanced ICU Care continues to grow, nurses have the opportunity to provide virtual care for up to 60 to 70 ICU patients and share their critical care expertise and bedside clinical skills with as many as 30 bedside ICU nurses.
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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