February 28, 2008

Mercy Launches Iowa’s First Electronic Intensive Care Unit

Blending sophisticated computer interface and videoconferencing technology with clinical excellence in critical care medicine, Mercy Medical Center—Sioux City has joined Mercy Medical Center—Des Moines in establishing Iowa’s first electronic intensive care unit. The service, Mercy eICU Connect, improves the quality of critical care through close monitoring and early intervention when medical problems develop.

The two medical centers, both ministry organizations in the Iowa-based Mercy Heath Network, are the first hospitals in the state to use Baltimore-based VISICU Inc.’s eICU technology. Intensive care patients in 78 beds at Mercy-Des Moines and Mercy-Sioux City are the first to benefit from the advanced critical care monitoring services provided by Mercy eICU Connect.

Inside a Des Moines control center with banks of monitors, cameras and computers, certified critical care nurses and board certified intensive care physicians, or intensivists, track patient vital signs – including heart rate, urine output, blood pressures and breaths per minute. They monitor EKG data, lab results, ventilator data, and medication information. From that centralized vantage point, much like an air traffic controller, eICU control center staff members watch for changes in a critically ill or injured patient’s condition. The eICU team also has powerful computer systems that continuously analyze the information and alert them to possible problems.

Adjustments in care can proactively be made before a patient’s condition has the opportunity to deteriorate. If a critical care physician is unavailable in a unit or doctors or critical care staff members need a consultation, a two-way video and audio conference can be connected to the patient room with a touch of a button. The video and audio clarity allow physicians in the Des Moines control center to see patient records, X-rays and medical data so they can recommend or direct a procedure if necessary. All medical information flashes back and forth from Sioux City to Des Moines on highly secured, high-speed data lines.

Mercy eICU Connect went online in Des Moines in mid-January. Mercy-Sioux City is launching its eICU capabilities today.

Dr. Larry Sellers, chief medical officer for Mercy Medical Center—Sioux City, said today’s implementation of advanced critical care telemedicine marks a significant medical first in the region.

“This historic project will most certainly enhance care and patient safety for Siouxland residents who are critically ill or injured,” he said. “The eICU program serves as a safety net around the patient, nurse and attending physicians. It provides close, constant monitoring and the continuous availability of critical care physicians’ skills and expertise.”

“In a traditional ICU setting, even full-time intensivists cannot be at an ICU patient’s bedside every hour of every day to monitor progress and maintain patient care plans. Yet we know that the critical and sometimes unstable condition of ICU patients – along with the typical complexity of their medical treatment – warrants very close monitoring.”

“Along with the highly capable, skilled physicians, nurses and other professionals directly taking care of the patient in Sioux City, another team of seasoned physicians and experienced critical care nurses are using leading-edge technology and evidence-based medicine to provide added support and monitoring from Des Moines. The result is extraordinary care for the patient,” Sellers added.

Dr. Ross Bacon, an intensivist and medical director of Critical Care at Mercy Medical Center—Sioux City, said eICU monitoring raises the standard of care afforded Mercy’s critical care patients.

“With fewer than 6,000 intensivists actively practicing in the U.S., only 13% of ICU patients across the country receive dedicated intensivist care,” he said. “However, the advent of eICU capabilities in Sioux City and Des Moines helps ensure that our patients will still benefit from that higher level of critical care – 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Mercy’s leaders emphasized that the patient’s own attending physician still makes all final decisions regarding his or her plan of care.

“While the kind of technology used in an eICU program is impressive, it will never replace human interaction, the most important element of health care,” Sellers quickly added. “That warm touch, and the great sense of compassion and trust that exists between a nurse or physician and their patient, is absolutely essential. It won’t be lost or forgotten. We are simply making great care even better.”

Mercy Medical Center—Sioux City, western Iowa’s leading hospital, has implemented the new eICU Connect program in all three of its ICU “pods” or patient care units, which house a total of 24 critical care beds.

Many of the adult and pediatric patients treated at Mercy’s regional Level II trauma center receive care in the hospital’s ICU. Patients who have just had major surgery including open-heart procedures, and those suffering from acute illness typically make up the rest of the patient population in Mercy’s ICU on an average day.

On Feb. 12, Mercy-Sioux City launched its first-ever capital campaign to fund three major projects including the construction of a new state-of-the-art ICU. To accommodate the new facility, which will house twenty private rooms, a sixth floor will be added to the Mercy Heart Center. The renovation of the existing ICU on the fifth floor of Mercy’s south hospital building will create a new space for the Cardiovascular Care Unit. Construction on the new sixth floor of the Heart Center is expected to start this summer.

After initially establishing the eICU’s remote monitoring capabilities at Mercy Medical Center—Sioux City and on two Mercy—Des Moines campuses, the hospitals will eventually expand eICU capabilities throughout the Mercy Health Network which includes 31 rural communities that are part of the system’s rural health network.

Sioux City’s first eICU program at Mercy builds on the high-tech advances implemented at the hospital during the past three years. In Sept. 2005, Mercy Medical Center—Sioux City became one of the most technologically innovative hospitals in the nation by making the extensive transition to a paperless, electronic health record system.

Dubbed “Genesis,” the sweeping initiative at Mercy included implementation of computerized physician order entry (CPOE), an adverse drug event (ADE) alert system, and the timely incorporation of equipment that healthcare providers at Mercy now use for bedside patient care and more precise record keeping.