Banner Health is the first health care provider in the metropolitan Phoenix and northern Colorado areas to use Baltimore-based VISICU Inc's eICU® technology, which allows intensive care physicians, called intensivists, to remotely monitor patients in multiple intensive care units (ICUs). Under Banner Health's iCare Intensive Care program, intensivists back up nurses and other caregivers at the bedside and help monitor ICU patient information 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
A Virtual Doctor
With the eICU®, intensivists are able to be virtually at the bedsides of dozens of patients in Banner Health's ICUs in Arizona and Colorado – the specialists however will be working from a command center located at Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa, Ariz. A key benefit of the eICU® system is the ability to pick up and trend nearly imperceptible changes in a patient's condition or vital signs. Because intensive care patients are so medically fragile, this early warning system can help head off life-threatening complications.
Immediate Response
When intensivists detect a problem or concern, they can talk live to the caregivers at the bedside via voice and video and discuss treatment and interventions. This timely response can often result in shorter hospital stays with fewer complications for the patient. The intensivist is not a replacement for any caregivers at the hospital, rather an additional practitioner who has access to all the patient's vital signs, medical records, test results, X-rays, and other items found in the medical record.
Facilities that offer eICU®