Technology Links External Physicians to ICU Patients

Achieving $2.5 million in funding - its goal had been $1.7 million - means Advanced ICU Care will be able to expand its services to hospitals across the country. Using a clinical management and communications technology, eICU licensed from VISICU, intensivists and critical care nurses are able to remotely monitor patients.

In January, St. Louis-based Advanced ICU Care began providing 24-hour real-time monitoring services at St. Mary's Health Center in Jefferson City, Mo. and St. Clare's Hospital in Weston, Wisc. The company was founded in response to the nationwide shortage of intensivists. There are only 6,000 intensivists to care for an estimated 5 million ICU patients. Only 20% of the country's ICUs have intensivists on staff.

By the end of this year, Advanced ICU will be monitoring more than60 ICU beds from its St. Louis facility and has plans to grow rapidly over the next five years.

At St. Mary's, Marilyn Russell, R.N., director of ICU, says that the nurses there are pleased with the new system. "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."