eICU Collaborative Initiated in Maryland
Grant funds will be leveraged to support a collaborative effort by six community-based hospitals in Maryland to develop an eICU. Through incorporation of telemedicine technologies, a system will be created to support remote monitoring for intensive care units. Christiana Care, a partner in the program, issued a press release describing the program.
The VISICU technology, eICU from Philips Healthcare is being implemented to support this effort. eICU supports connectivity between intensive care specialists remotely and the physicians and nurses on site in an ICU. Caregivers can communicate through data, voice, and video connectivity. Specialists offsite can see the patients in the ICU via this system, in addition to the laboratory or imaging data collected. Specialists can bring to light potential issues of concern in addition to consulting with on site clinicians at any time.
A $3 million grant from BlueCross BlueShield of Maryland will be utilized to fund the startup costs for the first three years of the project. The Maryland eCare LLC was created through this partnership. This will serve as an umbrella organization to allow the sharing of resources to improve the quality of care in critical care units in both rural and community hospitals. The six hospitals participating in the program are Calvert Memorial Hospital, Peninsula Regional Medical Center, Washington County Health System, Civista Medical Center, St. Mary’s Hospital, and Atlantic General Hospital.
The technology will be hosted by Christiana Care Health System, in Wilmington Delaware. Christiana has been using the eICU system since 2005 and has plans underway to recruit more facilities in Maryland to participate in the project. Two other facilities were considered before the Maryland eCare LLC signed the agreement with the Christiana system.
April 29, 2008 Related topics: Critical Care, Wireless, Partnerships & Consortia