Due to the hardware and software costs of the eICU Operations Center, plus the need to staff the center with critical care medicine physicians, the VISICU software has only been acquired by large, typically regional, multihospital systems with in-house intensivists. Advanced ICU Care owns the eICU hardware and software license and distributes these costs among its participating hospitals, significantly reducing the costs to any one hospital. Additionally, Advanced ICU Care staffs the eICU Operations Center.