Patient Care Goes Virtual At Elkins Park ICU

ELKINS PARK, Pa. (CBS) - A hospital in Montgomery County is beefing up the staff at its intensive care unit.  But their bedside manner is virtual.

"At any time of the day or night, we can be available at a moment's notice."

In a place where every second counts, says Dr. Mary Jo Gorman, CEO of Advanced ICU Care, "There's a problem in health care today that there's not enough support for the ICU where the most fragile patients are."

That's not the case at Einstein at Elkins Park, says Dr. Randy Young, the chairman of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the hospital.

The critical care unit there now is set up with webcasting and remote monitoring.

"The software they use is able to monitor trends in vital signs and lab data that a human observer might not be able to monitor quite so continuously. They can study those data; they can track them and react to them in real time. We can essentially have a physician at their bedside 24/7 to react to small changes."

The satellite doctors and nurses are based at the Advanced ICU Care headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, but they're not replacing health professionals at Einstein, he says, "We're merely using them in novel ways to improve patient care."

Gorman says Advanced ICU Care is active in more than 20 hospitals across the country.

"On average, after one year, our hospitals see a 40% improvement in mortality, and a 25% improvement in reducing length of stay in the ICU."

She calls the service a second layer of support for the local team.

"There's no way to replace what the nurse or doctor can do at the bedside.  But by using technology, we can better attend to their personal needs, and design a program that better enables them to have a good outcome in the ICU."

Reported by Ian Bush, KYW Newsradio 1060